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LETTERS 


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TO    A   VERY-  MAR     10      1- 


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S/CAi. 


YOUNG  LADY. 

Or.  V\/ 


VSVT1EN   FOR  THE  AMERICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  UNION,   AVC 
BEVISET   By  THE  COMMITTEE  OF  PUBLICATION. 


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PHILADELPHIA: 

AMERICAN   SUNDAY-SCHOOL  UNION, 

1122  Chestnut  Street. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1843, 
l>y  Herman  Cope,  Treasurer,  in  trust  for  the  American  Sun- 
day-school Union,  in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court 
c.f  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 


STEREOTYPED   BY 
U  JOHNSON.  PHILADELPHIA. 


PREFACE. 


The  writer  of  the  following  pages  has 
endeavoured  to  make  a  book  which 
should  be  both  entertaining  and  useful 
to  the  young.  It  has  been  his  aim  to 
adapt  his  language  to  the  wants  of  child- 
ren, without  becoming  childish.  For  this 
reason  there  has  been  little  attempt  to 
come  down  to  the  style  of  the  nursery; 
in  the  belief  that,  if  children  do  not  under- 
stand sound  English,  it  is  time  they  should 
learn  it.  If  every  hard  word  is  avoided, 
none  but  easy  words  can  ever  be  learned. 

The  subject  and  manner,  in  some  let- 
ters, are  purposely  higher  than  in  others ; 

for  it  is  impossible  to  suit  all  capacities. 

3 


4  PREFACE. 

It  is  hoped  that  none  will  find  any  diffi 
culty  which  it  will  not  be  profitable  to 
overcome. 

The  religious  instructions  contained  in 
many  parts  of  the  book  are  earnestly 
commended  to  the  youthful  reader,  with 
a  hearty  prayer  that  they  may  lead  some 
of  Christ's  lambs  into  the  way  of  life. 


CONTENTS. 


Letter  Page 

I.  Introductory     -  7 

II.  Play 11 

III.  The  Book-case         -        -        ■         -    16 

IV.  Filial  Duty  ....        21 
V.  Farly  Rising   -  -26 

VI.  Prayer 30 

VII.  Family  Worship*  -  -  -  -  34 
VIII.  Behaviour  at  Table       ...        39 

IX.  School     ------    44 

X.  Companions  50 

XI.  Reading 56 

XII.  Dress 65 

XIII.  Care  of  Room  -        -        -        -    71 

XIV.  Household  Work  77 
XV.  Needlework 83 

XVI.  Accomplishments  89 

XVII.  Music 94 

XVIII.  Brothers  and  Sisters    -        -        -        100 

XIX    Temper 105 

XX.  Behaviour  to  Servants  -        -      110 

XXl.  Acts  of  Charity       -        -        -        -  115 

XX'il.  Money 120 

1*  5 


6  CONTENTS. 

Letter  Paga 

XXIII.  Visits 126 

XXIV.  Receiving  Visits     -        -        -  131 
XXV.  Letter-Writing    -        -        -  -  136 

XXVI.  The  Formation  of  Habits        -  140 

XXVII.  Air  and  Exercise        -        -  -  145 

XX VIII.  Conversation           -        -  150 

XXIX.  Truth 156 

XXX.  The  Sunday-school         -        -  161 

XXXI.  Behaviour  in  Church          -  -  167 

XXXII.  The  Bible                                 -  174 

XXXIII.  Early  Piety        -        -        -  -  181 

XXXIV.  Preparation  for  Death      -        -  188 
XXXV.  Duty  of  Children  to  pious  Parents  194 

X  XXVI.  Fashionable#Amusements        -  199 

XXXVII.  Thoughts  for  the  Future      -  -  207 

*XXVIII    Usefulness                                -  215 

XXXIX.  Entertainment  out  of  Doors  -  223 

XL.  Home 231 

XLI.  Humility  and  Meekress     -  -  239 

XLII.  CDnc  usion                               -  247 


LETTERS 

TO   A* 

VE11T  YOUNG  LADY. 


LETTER  FIRST. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

My  dear  Mary, — You  have  now 
arrived  at  an  age  when  you  are  fully 
able  to  understand  the  advice  of  your 
friends,  on  the  most  important  sub- 
jects. You  write  letters  to  your  lit- 
tle acquaintances,  and  receive  their 
answers.  This  is  a  great  source  of 
entertainment  to  young  ladies  of 
your  age,  and  at  the  same  time  it  may 
be  made  very  improving.  I  do  not 
say  that  it  often  is  so ;  for  the  things 
which  fill  such  notes  and  billets  are 
sometimes  very  childish.  But  the 
correspondence  need  not  be  childish, 


8  LETTERS    TO    A 

even  when  it  is  childlike ;  for  there 
is  a  difference  between  these  words.  * 
which  I  will  leave  you  to  find  out. 

Since  you  are  so  fond  of  letters,  1 
do  not  see  any  reason,  my  dear,  wh) 
you  should  not  have  a  new  cor- 
respondent. I  think  I  hear  you  say, 
Who  can  it  be  ?  Where  is  this  new 
correspondent  to  come  from  ?  I  will 
tell  you.  It  shall  be  none  of  your 
school-mates,  nor  any  one  of  your 
relations.  But  it  shall  be  a  friend 
who  loves  you  and  enjoys  your  com- 
pany. True  he  has  lived  many  years 
longer  than  you,  and  has  gray  hairs 
and  a  good  many  wrinkles.  But 
notwithstanding  this,  he  is  not  so  old, 
nor  so  cross,  nor  so  sour,  that  he  can- 
not love  the  sweet  wrays  of  pleasant 
children.  Ah  !  you  have  guessed  it ! 
It  is  I  myself,  who  am  going  to  be 
your  correspondent;  and  I  mean  to 
write  you  a  long  string  of  letters ;  that 
is,  what  we  call  a  series.  And  all  I 
have  to  ask  is,  that  you  wrould  care- 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  9 

fulb  read  them  ;  and  when  you  have 
done  tnis,  that  you  would  put  thern 
away  safely,  for  future  use.  Because 
there  may  be  some  things  which  you 
will  understand  and  enjoy  better  a 
few  years  hence,  if  your  life  be 
spared,  than  you  do  now. 

Do  not  think,  my  dear  child,  be- 
cause I  am  so  much  older  than  you, 
and  because  I  am  a  minister  of  the 
gospel,  and  because  I  have  a  grave 
and  serious  face,  that  I  shall  al- 
ways write  to  you  in  a  way  to  make 
you  sad.  There  are  some  things 
which  I  must  say,  that  may  indeed 
sadden  you,  for  your  good ;  but  I 
hope  to  write  some  things,  also,  which 
shall  not  only  instruct,  but  entertain 
and  amuse  you.  I  believe,  I  may 
say  without  vanity,  that  I  have  in  my 
treasury  many  pleasant  things  for  a 
young  lady  of  your  age.  Some  of 
these  will  be  from  my  travels,  some 
from  my  daily  walks,  some  from  my 
books,  and  some  from  the  Book  of 


10  LETTERS    TO    A 

Books,  the  Inspired  Volume,  which 
is  the  message  of  God  our  Creator 
and  Saviour. 

This  is  enough  for  an  introduction 
My  letters  will  be  numerous,  but 
they  will  not  be  long.  Sometimes, 
I  hope,  you  will  try  your  pen  in  the 
way  of  reply.  And  let  me  assure 
you,  my  dear  Mary,  in  spite  cf  my 
wrinkles  and  gray  hairs,  I  sha'  •  prize 
your  little  communication*  very 
much. 


VERY  YOUNG  LADY.      11 


LETTER  SECOND. 


PLAY. 


M  r  dear  Mary, — To  be  fond  of 
play  is  so  natural  at  your  age,  that  no 
one  would  ever  think  of  finding  fault 
with  it.  Providence  has  made  it 
natural  to  all  young  creatures  to 
sport  and  gambol.  You  see  this  in 
the  lamb,  the  kid,  the  kitten,  and  the 
domestic  fowls.  It  is  wisely  and 
mercifully  arranged,  to  ensure  that 
exercise  which  is  necessary  for  the 
growth  of  the  body,  and  the  opening 
and  strengthening  of  the  limbs.  Be- 
sides, much  that  we  call  play  is 
really  learning.  There  are  many 
things  which  we  need  to  know,  that 
are  taught  in  no  schools,  except  the 
school  of  play.  But  then,  you  know, 
t  is  not  right  to  be  always  at  play, 
any  more  than  it  is  right  to  be  always 


12  LETTERS    TO    A 

at  school.  Every  thing  is  beautiful 
in  its  season.  The  sparrow  that 
sings  so  sweetly  near  our  window, 
must  sometimes  be  busy  about  her 
nest.  Very  little  children  do  scarce- 
ly any  thing  but  play.  Very  old 
men  and  women  do  not  play  at  all. 
And  while  little  people  are  growing 
up,  the  older  they  become,  the  less 
play  they  need.  So  that  though  I  will 
allow  you  to  spend  a  good  deal  of 
your  time  in  amusing  yourself,  you 
must  always  remember,  that  it  is  not 
your  main  business,  and  that  you 
must  willingly  leave  play  for  work,  or 
books. 

Perhaps  you  are  ready  to  ask  me, 
wdiat  are  the  best  plays  for  a  little 
girl  ?  I  answer,  play  is  play,  and  that 
is  best  which  you  like  best,  provided 
it  is  innocent,  healthful  and  mode- 
rate. It  would  be  very  unwise  in 
me  to  set  you  a  task  of  play.  You 
would  soon  grow  weary  of  your  doll, 
your  tea-things,  your  graces,  or  your 


VERY    YOUXG    LADY.  13 

cup-and-ball,  if  you  were  commanded 
to  play  with  them  an  hour  every  day. 

Be  sure,  my  dear  child,  to  have  no 
amusements  which  are  unknown  to 
your  dear  parents,  or  which  are  not 
pleasing  to  them.  No  play  ought  to 
seem  right  to  you  which  seems  wrong 
to  them. 

Plays  in  the  open  air  are  the  best 
of  all.     Exercise,  out  of   doors,  is 
good  for  the  health.     Look  at  those 
children  who  are   kept  very  much 
within   the  house.     How  pale  they 
are  !     If  you  feel  their  arms,  you  wit 
find   them   soft  and   weak.      Little 
girls  who  go  to  school,  and  sit  there 
several  hours  over  their  books,  need, 
in  a  special  manner,  the  open  air, 
to  give   a    colour   to    their   cheeks, 
and   to  prepare  them  for  after  life. 
When  the  weather  is  very  bad,  your 
parents  will  direct  you  to  stay  with- 
in ;  but  if  they  are  wise,  they  will 
not  allow  you  to  be  too  much  afraid 
of  a  little  sunshine  or  rain,  or  even 
2 


14  LETTERS    TO    A 

of  a  gentle  snow  You  are  to  live 
in  a  rough  world,  and  it  will  not  do 
for  you  to  become  too  tender. 

Your  young  acquaintances  will  be 

much  better  advisers  than  I,  as  to 

what  sports  and  games  you  shall  play 

at.     There  is  no  danger  that  you  will 

not  have  enough.    Avoid  those  which 

are.  boisterous  and  romping,  and  those 

which  give  pain  to  your  companions, 

or  to  any  living  creature.     Be  gentle, 

modest,  and  fair,  even  when  in  sport. 

Keep  far  away  from   all   plays,   in 

which  you  have  to  speak  any  thing 

untrue,  even  in  jest.     If  your  sports 

can  be  made  of  any  use,  or  fit  you 

for  any  duty,  so  much  the  better.     I 

do  not  care  how  full  of  gayety  and 

ioy  you  are,  while  you  are  at  your 

play.     It  is  well  to  do  what  we  do 

with  all  our  heart.     But  never  play 

when  you  ought  to  be  studying  or 

working.     Say  to  yourself:  When  I 

work,  I  work,  and  when  I  play,  I 

play.      Especially,    io  not  pia}'  in 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  15 

school,  unless  by  express  permission: 
and  remember  the  Sabbath-day  to 
keep  it  holy. 

Now,  my  dear,  lest  all  this  lecture 
about  play  should   turn  out   to  be 
hard   work,   I   will   weary   you    no 
longer.     You  may  go  out  to  your  tu 
lips  and  roses,  or  to  your  skipping 
rope,  or  to  your  swing,  or  to  ride  on 
your  pony,  or  to  run  along  the  river's 
bank,  or  to  arrange  your  tea-table 
So  I  bid  you  good  evening. 


16  LETTERS    TO    A 


LETTER  THIRD. 

THE    BOOK-CASE. 

My  dear  Mary, — I  have  been 
thinking  of  giving  you  a  little  ad- 
vice about  your  book-case  "My 
book-case !"  you  are  ready  to  cry 
out — "  why,  sir,  I  have  no  book- 
case." Then,  my  dear,  it  is  time 
you  had  one.  "  O,"  you  will  say, 
"  you  have  book-cases,  and  my  fa- 
ther has  a  book-case,  and  lawyers 
and  scholars  have  book-cases ;  but 
what  should  I,  a  little  girl  not  yet  in 
my  teens,  do  with  one  ?  I  will  an- 
swer you,  Mary.  As  soon  as  you 
have  books  of  your  own,  you  should 
have  a  place  to  keep  them  b)^  them- 
selves. If  you  have  two  or  three 
only,  a  shelf  will  do  in  your  mother's 
chamber,  or  in  the  nursery,  or  in 
vour  own   room.     If    you    rave   3 


VERY    ItOUNG    LADY.  17 

dozen  or  more,  as  most  girls  of  your 
age  have,  who  are  careful  of  what 
has  been  given  them,  you  will  need 
several  shelves,  and  these  put  to- 
gether make  a  book-case.  The  car- 
penter will  make  you  a  plain  one  for 
a  few  shillings ;  or,  if  your  parents 
can  afford  it,  and  will  buy  you  one 
of  a  more  elegant  sort,  the  money 
will  not  be  thrown  away. 

But  whether  you  have  a  book-case 
or  not,  you  cannot  begin  too  early  to 
keep  every  thing  that  belongs  to  you 
in  good  order.  A  place  for  every 
thing,  and  every  thing  in  its  place. 
When  you  have  been  reading  a 
book  and  are  suddenly  called  away, 
do  not  leave  it  on  a  chair,  or  in  the 
window-seat,  or  on  the  door-steps,  or 
the  bench  in  the  arbour.  Do  not  lay 
it  open  on  the  breakfast-table  or 
work-stand,  with  the  clean  leaves 
spread  out  to  be  soiled.  Return  it 
carefully  to  the  shelf,  and  to  its  ex- 
act   place ;    not  upside   down,   nor 


18  LETTERS   TO    A 

with  the  back  inwards,  but  just  as 
you  wo  ild  wish  to  find  it.  In  work, 
or  study,  or  play,  the  rule  is  a  good 
one  for  all  people :  Leave  things  as 
you  would  find  them. 

By  no  means  use  your  book  for 
any  purpose  but  to  read  in  it.  For 
this  it  was  made :  and  to  do  otherwise 
is  to  abuse  it.  When  I  call  upon  the 
young  ladies  of  my  flock,  I  see  many 
signs  of  abused  books.  Some  of 
them  wet  their  finger  or  thumb  to 
turn  over  the  leaf,  a  slovenly  habit 
which  no  neat  person  will  indulge 
in.  It  soils  the  page,  and  makes 
what  you  call  dog's-ears.  I  have 
turned  over  many  thousands  of 
leaves  in  my  day,  but  I  never  found 
this  expedient  necessary.  Some 
persons  think  a  book  a  very  safe  and 
good  place  for  keeping  flowers,  cut- 
paper,  patterns  of  silk  and  ribands, 
and  delicate  bits  of  lace ;  and  so  it  is, 
if  the  book  is  never  to  be  read.  But 
the  sight  of  these  things  between 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  19 

the  leaves  is  a  fair  sign  that  the 
owner  is  not  a  great  reader.  Some 
young  ladies  use  a  book  to  raise 
them  at  the  piano-forte,  or  they  set  a 
flower-'pot  upon  it,  or  they  take  it  to 
support  the  sash  of  a  window,  when 
the  weight  is  out  of  order.  Pray 
avoid  all  these  tricks.  They  are 
most  common  where  people  are  vul- 
gar and  ignorant.  A  book  is  made 
to  be  read ;  use  it  aright  and  it  will 
be  a  treasure.  After  a  little  while  it 
will  be  no  trouble  to  you  to  put  your 
book  away,  whenever  you  have  done 
reading  in  it. 

It  is  a  good  way  to  put  a  neat 
paper-cover  on  such  books  as  you 
have  to  use  very  often.  It  is  not  a 
good  way  to  turn  down  a  leaf  in  or- 
der to  mark  the  place,  or  to  stick  a 
pin  into  the  paper ;  you  had  better 
lose  your  place  than  do  either  of 
these  things. 

Never  allow  yourself  to  write  any 
thing  in  a  book  except  your  name, 


20  LETTERS    TO    A 

and  write  that  but  once.  You  will 
of  course  be  ashamed  to  draw  pic- 
tures on  the  pages,  or  to  tear  out  the 
blank  leaves  at  the  beginning  or  end. 
It  is  the  slattern  only  who  falls  intc 
such  practices ;  and  I  should  judge 
of  the  neatness  of  a  young  lady  very 
much  by  the  care  she  takes  of  her 
books. 

This  will  be  enough  about  the 
outside  of  books.  I  may  say  some- 
thing about  the  inside  hereafter. 


VERY  YOUNG  LADY.      21 


LETTER  FOURTH. 

FILIAL   DUTY. 

My  dear  Mary, — Your  kind  pa 
rents  are  still  living  It  is  an  un- 
speakable blessing,  for  which  you 
cannot  be  thankful  enough  to  Al- 
mighty God.  Think  of  the  thou- 
sands of  poor  orphans  in  the  world, 
and  pray  to  be  kept  from  forgetting 
the  debt  of  gratitude  that  you  owe. 

When  you  see  the  care  of  your 
beloved  mother  for  your  little  sister 
or  brother,  who  is  still  in  infancy, 
you  should  daily  remember  that  the 
same  care  was  once  bestowed  on 
you.  You  cannot  remember  it,  but 
it  is  fresh  in  the  rrinds  of  your  pa- 
rents; and  if  you  were  to  live  a 
hundred  years  with  them,  you  never 
could  repay  them.  O  how  they 
watched    by   your    bed-side    when 


22  LETTERS    TO    A 

you  were  sick  !  How  they  trembled 
when  they  thought  you  would  die ! 
Can  you  love  them  enough  for  this  ? 
How  are  you  going  to  repay  them. 
Mary  ?  With  money  ?  O,  no !  ail 
the  gold  of  all  the  mines  in  the 
world  would  not  repay  them.  They 
do  not  ask  gold  and  silver,  and  you 
have  not  got  any,  if  they  did.  What 
then  are  you  to  pay  them  with  ? 
What  ought  you  to  give  them  ?  I 
will  tell  you,  in  a  single  word,  Ho- 
nour :  this  is  what  you  are  to  render, 
and  this  is  what  God  commands. 

Honour  thy  Father  and  thy 
Mother,  that  thy  days  may  be 
long  upon  the  land  which  the 
Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee. 

This  is  the  fifth  commandment,- 
but  it  is  the  first  commandment  with 
promise*      It  is  the  child's   great 
commandment,  and  the  one  which; 
should  be  always  in  your  mind  and* 
heart.      It  promises  long   life   and 

*  Eph.  vi.  2,  3. 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  23 

prosperity  as  far  as  these  are  for 
God's  glory  and  your  good.  Re- 
member it,  then,  and  honour  those 
beloved  friends,  who  love  you  more 
than  it  is  possible  for  you  now  to 
understand. 

If  other  persons  are  placed  over 
vou  in  a  situation  like  that  of  your 
father  and  mother,  they  have  like 
authority.  You  must  honour  them 
also.  I  mean  your  guardians,  your 
teachers,  and  all  who  take  the  place 
of  parents  to  you. 

Bless  God  for  giving  you  kind 
and  able  parents,  and  ask  yourself 
every  day,  what  you  can  do  to  make 
them  happy.  Watch  their  very 
looks,  and  do  not  wait  for  their  com- 
mand, but  hasten  to  obey  before 
they  have  given  you  their  orders. 
It  will  be  too  late  to  think  of  this 
when  their  precious  heads  are  laid 
cinder  the  earth.  Then,  my  dear 
Mary,  (if  you  should  be  living,)  you 
will    think   of    a    thousand    things: 


24  LETTERS    TO    A 

which  you  might  have  dene  for 
their  comfort;  but  it  will  be  toe 
late. 

Never  differ  with  )rour  mother  a 
single  moment,  about  what  you 
ought  to  do.  She  knows  better  than 
you.  If  you  think  otherwise,  you 
are  a  foolish,  as  well  as  a  wicked 
child.  It  is  impossible  for  you  to 
please  God,  unless  you  please  your 
parents  in  every  thing  lawful  which 
they  command  you. 

Obey  from  the  heart  cheerfully, 
quickly  and  affectionately.  Do  not 
be  like  the  eye-servant,  who  works 
only  while  the  master  is  looking  at 
him.  Attend  to  your  parents'  wishes 
as  much  in  their  absence  as  in  their 
presence.  It  is  ungrateful,  it  is 
offensive  to  God,  for  any  child  to  do 
otherwise. 

To  say  that  a  little  girl  is  disobe- 
dient to  her  parents  is  one  of  the 
worst  things  it  is  possible  to  say 
about  her.     There  are  such  girls  in 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  25 

the  world.  I  have  met  with  them. 
I  have  heard  them  speak  as  pertly 
to  their  mothers  as  they  would  to  a 
servant ;  and  I  have  been  disgusted 
and  shocked,  and  have  trembled  for 
them.  Such  a  young  lady  shall 
never  be,  with  my  leave,  the  com- 
panion of  my  children.  She  is 
hateful  to  God  and  holy  angels,  and 
unless  she  repent  and  turn,  will  no 
doubt  fall  under  heavy  judgments. 
I  hope  better  things  of  you,  my 
child.  You  cannot  repeat  too  often 
the  words  of  Scripture :  Children, 
obey  your  parents  in  the  Lord,  for 
this  is  right.  Honour  thy  father 
and  mother,  which  is  the  first  com- 
mandment with  promise;  that  it 
may  be  well  with  thee,  and  thou 
may  est  live  long  on  the  earth. 
Ephes.  vi.  1,  2,  3. 
9 


26  LETTERS   TO    A 


LETTER  FIFTH. 

EARLY    RISING. 

My  dear  Mary, — It  is  now  the 
beautiful  summer-season,  when  our 
kind  Creator  has  given  us  the  great- 
est delights  of  nature.  It  is  the 
time  of  flowers,  and  fruits,  and 
birds,  and  beautiful  prospects.  But 
to  enjoy  these  fully,  you  must  rise 
betimes.  Young  persons  sometimes 
get  into  a  very  bad  habit  of  lying  in 
bed  for  some  hours  after  the  sun  is 
up.  They  are  asleep  when  creation 
is  showing  its  wonderful  beauties. 
They  lose  many  pleasures  which 
they  might  enjoy  for  nothing;  and 
they  are  forming  a  habit  which  is 
likely  to  remain  with  them  as  long 
as  they  live. 

Make  one  fair  trial  of  early  rising, 
and  you  w  11  be  persuaded  that  1 


VEB  ¥    YOUNG    LADY.  27 

am  right.  Go  out  with  me  just  be- 
fore sunrise.  The  moment  you  go 
abroad,  what  a  freshness  and  fra- 
grance breathes  from  the  country 
around !  What  a  concert  of  gay 
birds  in  the  wood  !  What  brilliant 
colours  in  the  various  flowers  !  Now 
tell  me,  is  not  this  far  better  than  to 
be  lving,  stupidly  asleep,  in  a  warm 
bed? 

Early  rising  is  good  for  the  health. 
Most  old  people  will  tell  you  that 
they  have  been  early  risers.  .  If  you 
wish  to  have  an  appetite  for  your 
breakfast,  go  out  in  season  and  brush 
away  the  early  dew.  A  little  exer- 
cise in  these  morning  hours  is  better 
than  a  great  deal  at  a  later  hour  in 
the  day. 

Those  who  lie  long  in  bed  are 
apt  to  neglect  their  dress.  As  they 
rise  but .  a  little  before  the  family 
come  together,  they  have  to  dress  in 
a  hurry ;  and  so  they  fall  into  care- 
less, slovenly  wavs.     What  is  still 


28  LETTERS   TO    A 

worse,  they  often  neglect  their  les* 
sons.  In  the  evening,  when  tired 
with  play,  they  put  off  their  tasks 
till  morning;  and  when  the  morn- 
ing comes  they  sleep  so  long  that 
they  have  just  time  to  hurry  down 
to  breakfast.  And  what  is  worst  of 
all,  they  are  almost  sure  to  neglect 
their  devotions. v  They  have  no  time 
to  read  their  Bible,  as  every  one 
ought  to  do  every  morning ;  and  if 
they  pray,  it  is  in  a  hasty,  careless 
manner,  which  is  unprofitable  to 
them,  and  displeasing  to  God.  So 
you  see  there  are  serious  evils  grow- 
ing out  of  late  rising. 

It  is  a  false  kindness  in  your 
friends  to  let  you  sleep  too  long  in 
the  morning,  and  when  you  grow 
older  you  will  not  thank  them  for  it. 
It  would  be  a  real  favour  if  they 
were  to  force  you  to  arise  at  an  early 
hour,  day  after  diy,  until  the  habit, 
was  fully  formed  and  fixed  for  life. 

Begin  at  once.    Every  thing  must 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  29 

have  a  beginning.  It  will  be  a  little 
hard  at  first,  but  it  will  be  less  and 
less  so  every  day.  Spring  out  of 
bed  the  moment  you  open  your  eyes. 
Never  lie  an  instant  after  you  awake 
and  find  it  day.  This  will  soon 
make  it  necessary  for  you  to  retire 
early,  and  you  will  not  wake  too 
early  more  than  once  or  twice. 

I  hope  to  find  you  among  the 
early  birds,  and  to  see  by  your 
cheeks  and  your  activity,  that  my 
rules  have  done  vou  good. 


3* 


30  LETTERS    TO   A 

LETTER  SIXTH. 

PRAYER. 

My  dear  Map/, — There  is  an 
age  at  which  every  child,  whose  pa- 
rents respect  religion,  is  accustomed 
to  pray  to  God.  A.11  little  hoys  and 
girls  are  taught  to  do  so,  unless  they 
have  been  brought  up  in  a  very 
heathenish  manner.  You  can  re 
member  the  time  when  your  dear 
mother  used  to  make  you  kneel 
down  by  her,  and  repeat  the  simple 
petitions  which  she  taught  you.  I 
hope  you  will  never  forget  those 
infant  devotions.  While  your  little 
hands  were  clasped  in  prayer,  no 
doubt  the  heart  of  your  tender  pa- 
rent accompanied  your  supplications 
with  her  own. 

But  children  often  cease  to  pray. 
Alas !  that  it  should  be  so .  They 
become  ashamed  of  prayer.     They 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  31 

would  feel  badly,  if  they  thought 
any  one  knew  they  had  gone  into 
their  closet  to  pray.  How  dreadful, 
that  as  we  grow  older  we  should  grow 
worse !  What  a  sign  of  the  cor- 
ruption of  our  nature  !  I  trust  it  is 
not  so  yet  with  my  dear  young  friend; 
I  trust  she  never  fails  to  pray  to  God, 
and  that  she  loves  to  do  so. 

It  is  not  enough,  my  dear,  to  go  by 
yourself  and  say  over  a  prayer,  how- 
ever excellent  the  prayer  may  be. 
God  looks  at  the  heart.  Praying  is 
asking.  When  you  do  not  ask,  you 
do  not  pray.  If  you  do  not  desire 
what  you  ask,  you  do  not  pray 
aright.  Such  prayers  are  mockery 
of  God,  like  those  of  the  Pharisees, 
which  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  con- 
demned. Take  care  not  to  offer 
such  prayers. 

The  very  best  hour  of  the  day 
should  be  given  to  prayer ;  that  is, 
with  most  people,  the  early  morning 
hour       Then,   when   all   nature   is 


32  LETTERS    TO    A 

sweet  and  inviting,  when  the  air  is 
fresh,  when  birds  are  singing,  when 
you  are  refreshed  by  a  night's  rest, 
and  before  the  cares  of  the  day  have 
come  upon  you,  go  and  pour  out 
your  heart  before  God.  It  is  the 
best  way  of  beginning  the  day. 
Whatever  you  do  afterwards,  you 
will  be  likely  to  do  better  if  you 
have  prayed  for  God's  blessing. 

Let  me  beg  you  not  to  neglect 
this  precious  privilege  as  you  grow 
older.  No  matter  where  you  may 
be,  or  in  what  company,  remember 
your  duty  to  God.  I  hope  you  will 
never  be  thrown  into  the  neighbour- 
hood of  those  who  are  wicked 
enough  to  laugh  at  you  for  offering 
your  prayers  to  God.  But  even  if  this 
should  be  the  case,  no  matter.  It  is 
better  to  please  God  than  to  please 
men.  They  laughed  at  prophets, 
and  apostles,  and  martyrs,  yes,  and 
at  Jesus  Christ  himself. 

Do  not  hurry  c  ver  y  i>ur  prayers 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  33 

as  if  fou  longed  to  get  through 
them.  Remember,  prayer  is  speak- 
ing to  God.  Think  of  what  you 
say  while  you  pray,  or  else  your 
prayers  will  be  a  mere  chattering, 
senseless  noise,  which  a  parrot  might 
make  as  well  as  you. 

If  you  have  a  room  or  closet 
where  you  can  be  entirely  alone,  go 
there  to  pray.  You  know  our  Sa- 
viour's direction,  Matt.  vi.  6.  In 
summer-time  you  may  go  to  an  ar- 
bour, a  garden,  or  a  grove.  If  no 
such  place  is  convenient,  do  not 
think  you  are  excused  from  praying. 
Kneel  down  in  the  most  retired  part 
of  the  house  you  can  find,  and  there 
converse  with  your  Father  who  is 
in  heaven. 

Do  the  same  thing  at  night,  and 
never  think  of  going  prayerless  to 
bed.  The  beasts  do  so ;  but  the  hea- 
then do  not  so ;  nor  do  the  Moham- 
medans. Let  not  a  young  Christian 
be  worse  than  Turks  ard  heathens, 


34  LECTERS    TO    A 


LETTER  SEVENTH. 

FAMILY   WORSHIP. 

My  dear  Mary, —  There  are 
some  families  which  never  come 
together  to  worship  God.  They 
rise  in  the  morning  and  go  to  bed  at 
night  just  like  the  brutes  that  perish, 
without  one  word  of  prayer,  or  one 
word  of  praise.  If  they  have  the 
precious  Bible  in  their  houses,  they 
never  read  it  aloud.  I  say  there 
are  such  families  in  the  world ;  but 
you,  my  dear,  have  not  been  among 
them.  It  has  been  your  lot  to  be 
born  of  pious  parents.  As  far  back 
as  you  can  remember,  you  have  met 
every  morning  ard  every  evening 
for  the  worship  of  God.  In  this 
way  you  have  heard  the  Scriptures 
read  over  a  number  of  times.  This 
is  a  favour  for  which  you  will  have 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  35 

reason  to  thank  God  as  lon%  as  yon 
live.  All  your  books  and  all  your 
schools  are  as  nothing  when  com 
pared  with  this  family-school,  thia 
school  of  God,  where  a  whole  house- 
hold gather  daily  at  the  feet  of 
Christ,  and  learn  of  Him. 

You  ought  to  think  very  highly 
of  family  worship.  You  ought  ne- 
ver to  be  absent  from  it.  To  lie  in 
bed,  or  to  be  only  half-dressed,  when 
the  signal  is  given  for  prayer,  is  a  sin 
and  a  shame.  Be  up  in  time,  so  as 
to  be  fully  ready  to  come  in  promptly 
and  take  your  place,  with  your  book 
m  your  hand. 

Remember  that  you  are  in  the 
presence  of  God.  You  have  come 
to  hear  his  holy  word,  and  to  pray 
to  him.  Be  sober.  Let  no  light 
thoughts  come  into  your  mind ;  or, 
if  they  come  in,  dismiss  them.  Do 
not  look  about  at  the  other  children; 
do  not  smile  nor  laugh.  Attend 
seriously  to  what  is  going  on.     Mind 


36  LETTERS    TO    \ 

what  is  read  out  of  the  word  of 
God.  It  is  a  dreadful  habit  \vhicb 
some  people  get  into,  of* hearing  the 
Scriptures  read  without  knowing 
what  they  have  heard. 

If  the  family  sing  at  their  daily 
worship,  I  hope  you  will  sing  too. 
It  is  a  delightful  exercise  ;  and  it  is 
a  good  way  of  learning  to  sing.  I 
hope  my  Mary  wTill  never  be  one  of 
those  young  ladies  who  can  sing  at 
play,  sing  at  the  piano-forte,  sing 
everywhere  but  in  the  worship  of 
God.  There  is  nothing  you  can  do 
with  your  voice  better  than  to  praise 
God  with  it. 

Especially  be  on  your  guard  when 
you  kneel  in  prayer.  It  is  a  solemn 
moment ;  but  it  is  one  wThich  care- 
less children  profane  very  much. 
You  are  now  going  to  converse  with 
God.  Be  in  earnest.  Let  not  youi 
eyes  wander;  and,  if  possible,  le1 
not  your  thoughts  wander.  Every 
word  of  the  prayer  is  spoken  to  God. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  37 

and  spoken  to  God  for  you ;  there- 
fore lose  no  word.  Proper  attention 
to  family  worship  is  as  likely  to  end 
in  your  conversion,  as  any  means  of 
grace  you  can  use. 

In  the  evening  you  will  no  doubt 
be  more  weary  and  drowsy  than  in 
the  morning.  But  you  must  try  to 
keep  awake.  These  things  depend 
very  much  on  habit;  and  habit  may 
be  formed  by  strong  resolution. 
Make  up  your  mind  not  to  fall 
asleep  during  any  religious  service. 

Never  think  the  worship  of  God 

a  hardship.     Never  allow  yourself 

to  feel  as  if  family  worship  were  an 

unwelcome  interruption.     Go  quick 

[y  to  the  place  of  prayer.     Go  joy 

fully.     Go  as  you  would  go  to  meet 

your  dearest  friend.     Go  as  if  you 

loved   it.     Learn   to  love   it.     Lay 

down  your  plaything  or  your  book 

with     cheerful     expectation.        To 

praise  or  pray   is  better   than  play 

and  plavthings. 

4 


38  LETTERS    TO    A 

Now,  my  dear  young  friend,  if  you 
find  that  you  have  done  wrong  in 
any  of  these  things,  do  so  no  more. 
Humbly  pray  to  God,  for  Christ's 
sake,  to  forgive  this  sin ;  and  beg 
him  for  his  grace,  to  make  you 
better. 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  39 


LETTER  EIGHTH. 

BEHAVIOUR    AT    TABLE. 

My  dear  Mary, — The  dog  and 
the  cat  do  not  take  regular  meals. 
The  beasts  of  the  field  devour  what 
they  can  get,  wherever  they  find  it. 
The  birds  eat  a  hundred  times  a 
day.  Savages  are  said  to  take  their 
food  a  good  deal  in  the  same  way, 
sitting,  standing,  lying,  or  running. 
Sometimes  they  go  a  whole  day 
without  food,  and  sometimes  they 
swallow  as  much  as  would  last  us 
several  days.  But  civilized  people 
eat  at  particular  times,  and  here,  in 
America,  we  commonly  do  so  three 
times  in  the  day. 

It  is  not  merely  for  the  sake  of 
eating  and  drinking  that  we  meet 
at  the  table.  It  is  to  see  one  another, 
and  to  help  one  another,  and  to  enjoy 


40  LETTERS    TO    A 

one  another's  company.     We  meet 
as  friends,  as  relations  and  as  rea 
sonable  beings.     Every  thing  at  our 
meals  should  be  quiet,  and  pleasant, 
and  cheerful. 

When  a  little  infant  is  first  brought 
to  the  table,  its  behaviour  is  very  odd. 
It  feels  strangely  and  awkwardly.  It 
does  not  know  how  to  handle  a  knife 
and  fork,  to  use  a  spoon,  to  feed  it- 
self, or  to  keep  itself  clean.  It  is 
sometimes  noisy  and  unruly,  and  as 
soon  as  it  has  done  eating,  it  is  impa- 
tient to  be  gone.  You  have  ob- 
served this  in  your  little  brothers 
and  sisters. 

Now  wThat  I  mean  to  say  is  this ; 
that  the  conduct  which  is  pardon- 
able in  a  baby,  would  be  very  offen- 
sive in  a  young  lady.  Yet  I  have 
seen  girls  who  behaved  as  ill  at 
table  as  the  most  ignorant  child  :  yet 
they  were  called  young  ladies.  I 
have  known  them  to  spill  their  tea 
and  coffee,  scatter  their  food  about, 


\ERY    YOUNG    LADY  41 

stuff  their   mouths  with   food,  and 
snatch  what  was  upon   the  dishes 
I  have  heard  them  cry  and  scream 
so  as  to  disturb  all  around  them; 
and  I  have  seen  them  eat  greedily,' 
and  then  rush  from  the  table  before 
the  rest  of  the  company  were  done. 
Forgive   me    for   mentioning    these 
rude   ways.     I   am   persuaded    you 
would   be   ashamed   to   be   charged 
with  any  of  them.     And  I  do  not 
give  you  the  advice  which  follows 
because    I   think    you   need    every 
word   of  it,   but  because  you  may 
follow  bad  examples  so  as  to  require 
some  of  it. 

Always  appear  neat  and  fully 
dressed  at  the  table.  Be  there  at 
the  moment.  Take  your  own  place, 
and  occupy  as  little  room  as  possible! 
Show  a  devout  attention  when  the 
blessing  of  God  is  asked,  as  it  is  by 
all  faithful  heads  of  families.  Wait 
till  you  are  helped,  and  do  not  ask  for 

any  thing  which  is  not  at  the  table. 
4* 


42  LETTERS    TO    A 

Speak  kindly  to  those  who  wait  upon 
you ;  and  give  as  little  trouble  as 
possible. 

By  all  means  avoid  all  haste  in 
taking  your  food:  it  looks  like  greedi- 
ness, and  is  a  mark  of  ill-breeding. 
Take  notice  of  those  who  are  most 
refined  in  their  manners,  and  do  as 
they  do,  avoiding  all  airs  and  affecta- 
tion. Always  remember  that  you 
are  a  young  lady,  and  avoid  every 
thing  bold  and  boisterous.  Speak 
when  you  are  spoken  to ;  but  as  a 
general  rule, .  be  silent  at  table. 
When  you  have  ended  your  meal, 
do  not  jump  up  with  your  mouth 
full,  but  sit  quietly  till  all  the  rest 
arise.  Or,  if  it  is  necessary  foi  vou 
to  retire  for  the  sake  of  study  or 
work,  ask  leave  to  do  so. 

When  you  go  abroad  to  visit  your 
friends,  they  will  judge  of  you  very 
much  by  your  behaviour  at  the 
table ;  and  if  they  find  you  rude 
and  ill-mannered,  they  will  think  iY. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  43 

of  your  parents.  Indeed,  children 
should  remember  that  all  who  see 
them  behaving  themselves  amiss, 
will  think  worse  of  their  parents  on 
this  account.  For  the  sake,  then, 
of  those  whom  you  love  so  much, 
let  your  whole  conduct  be  proper 
and  respectful. 

Let  me  say  one  word  more  about 
your  meals.  As  you  so  often  pray, 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread, 
you  should  think  of  this  prayer 
when  your  daily  bread  is  given  you; 
that  is,  when  you  sit  down  at  table. 
You  should  think  who  it  is  that 
feeds  you,  and  be  thankful.  And 
vou  should  remember  the  needy 
who  are  perishing  by  thousands, 
while  you  have  enough  and  to  spare 


44  LETTERS    TO    A. 


LETTER  NINTH. 

SCHOOL. 

My  dear  Mary, — When  it  is 
time  for  school,  be  sure  to  be  ready. 
Think  of  it  a  little  beforehand,  so  as 
not  to  be  hurried.  Let  your  person 
be  neat  and  tidy  in  the  highest 
degree,  but  without  finery.  If  the 
season  requires  it,  have  your  thick 
shoes  and  umbrella,  or  your  parasol 
and  fan  in  readiness.  Let  there  be 
no  searching  for  books  and  papers 
at  the  last  moment. 

Go  direct  to  school,  and  be  so 
punctual  that  every  one  who  knows 
you  may  say,  "  There  is  Mary,  who 
is  never  too  late  " 

Pious  teachers  open  their  school 
with  prayer  and  the  reading  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  Be  serious  and 
devout  during  these  exercises.     Let 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  45 

ao  smile,  or  light  look,  or  whisper, 
sa>  that  you  treat  the  worship  of 
God  with  disrespect. 

Salute  your  teachers  and  school- 
mates with  respect  and  cheerfulness, 
and  take  your  ^lace  silently.  Get 
to  work  immediately.  As  long  as 
you  live,  make  it  a  rule  to  give  your 
whole  mind  to  what  you  are  about. 
You  go  to  school  in  order  to  learn 
not  to  talk  or  play ;  therefore  never 
talk  or  play  there,  except  at  times 
when  you  are  permitted  to  do  so. 

If  you  love  learning,  you  will  get 
learning.  In  our  country,  girls  are 
sent  to  school  only  a  few  years ; 
therefore  make  the  most  of  your 
time.  Study  hard,  my  dear  child, 
and  it  will  be  a  treasure  to  you  as 
long  as  you  live.  Do  not  go  by  the 
example  of  those  around  you.  In 
most  cases  this  will  be  wrong.  Do 
what  you  know  to  be  right,  what 
your  teachers  direct,  and  what  will 
please  \  our  parents.     Study  for  the 


46  LETTERS    TO    A 

sake  of  getting  knowledge,  rather 
£han  for  any  medals,  tickets,  prizes, 
holidays,  or  other  rewards.  Next 
to  virtue  and  religion,  knowledge  is 
the  best  thing.  It  requires  labour, 
but  it  is  worth  labouring  for.  Your 
dear  parents  may  lose  all  their  pro- 
perty,  and  you  may  become  poor; 
but  this  will  not  rob  you  of  your, 
learning.  All  the  men  on  earth 
cannot  rob  you  of  it.  Think  of 
this  every  time  you  go  to  school, 
every  time  you  open  a  book. 

Let  your  teachers  see  that  it  is  a 
delight  to  you  to  please  them.  No- 
thing makes  a  teacher  happier  than 
to  see  scholars  dutiful.  Never,  even 
for  a  moment,  join  in  any  plans  to 
vex  your  instructers.  It  is  foolish, 
it  is  unbecoming  to  your  sex,  and  it 
is  wicked. 

Treat  your  companions  with  kind- 
ness and  civility.  Take  care  to  fall 
into  no  rough,  boyish  ways  of  talk- 
ing and  acting  with  them.     If  you 


VERY   YOUNG    LADY.  47 

do,  you  will  be  in  danger  of  becom- 
ing that  hateful  thing,  a  hoyden. 
Rude  salutations,  pinches,  nick- 
names, and  horse-play  may  win  a 
laugh,  but  they  are  not  lady-like; 
and  wise  and  well-bred  persons  are 
disgusted  with  them.  They  are  the 
things  which  sometimes  make  board- 
ing-schools highly  offensive.  I  am 
sure  you  will  despise  them. 

Try  to  perform  every  duty  per- 
fectly. Do  your  best.  If  it  is  read- 
ing, read  as  well  as  you  think  pos- 
sible. If  it  is  writing,  let  it  be  neat, 
careful,  and  without  a  blot.  If  it  is 
repeating  from  memory,  never  miss 
a  word.  If  it  is  arithmetic,  give  all 
your  thoughts  to  it  closely,  and  be 
sure  you  are  right.  Do  nothing 
hastily  or  carelessly.  It  is  better  to 
work  well  than  to  work  fast.  You 
Know  how  it  is  in  work.  You  may 
knit  so  fast  as  to  drop  your  stitches  ; 
you  may  sew  so  fast  that  you  must 


48  LETTERS    TO    A 

rip  it  all  out.      What  is  well  done,  is 
twice  done. 

When  the  school  is  dismissed,  go 
straight  home,  unless  otherwise  di- 
rected by  your  parents  or  teachers. 
If  you  have  tasks,  do  not  put  them 
off'  too  long.  Doing  so  leads  to  the 
hurry  and  carelessness  which  injure 
so  many  minds,  and  make  half- 
learned  people  for  life.  Get  your 
lessons  off  your  mind,  and  then  you 
will  go  to  your  amusements  with  a 
light  and  merry  heart.  Playing 
while  a  lesson  is  unlearned,  is  playing 
with  a  yoke  on.  Get  rid  of  the 
yoke,  and  you  will  be  as  gay  as  a 
bird. 

It  is  a  good  thing  for  children  to 
talk  freely  with  their  parents  about 
school  affairs; — not  to  complain  of 
your  teachers,  nor  to  find  fault  with 
your  studies,  nor  to  tell  tales  of  your 
companions ;  all  these  things  are 
hateful :  but  it  is  useful  to  talk 
over    your    studies,   to    show   your 


VEfcf    YOUNG    IA.DY.  49 

father  and  your  mother  what  you 
have  learned,  and  to  ask  their  advice. 
Last  of  all,  do  all  that  I  have 
recommended  as  your  duty  to  God, 
out  of  love  to  Him,  and  to  make 
yourself  useful  in  his  work,  if  He 
spares  you  to  grow  up.  Do  this, 
and  you  will  find  a  blessing  m  your 
school. 


50  LETTERS    TO   A 


LETTER  TENTH. 

COMPANIONS. 

My  dear  Mary, — There  is  a 
Spanish  proverb  which  says,  Tell 
me  your  company,  and  I  will  tell  you 
who  you  are.  Any  person  may  be 
known  by  the  company  he  keeps. 
It  is  as  true  of  a  young  lady  as 
of  any  one.  Perhaps'  you  have  read 
a  little  story  or  fable  of  ^Esop,  en- 
titled "  The  Farmer  and  the  Stork." 
The  farmer  spread  a  net  in  his 
wheat-field  to  catch  the  cranes  and 
geese  which  ate  the  grain  he  had 
been  sowing.  One  day  he  came  to 
his  net,  and  found  in  it  several 
cranes  and  geese,  and  among  them 
a  stork.  As  the  farmer  was  about 
to  kill  them  all,  the  stork  pleaded 
\rery  hard,  and  said  he  was  neither 
a  crane  nor  a  goose,  and  that  he  was 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  51 

kind  and  dutiful  to  his  parents.  All 
this  may  be  true,  said  the  farmer 
but  I  judge  of  you  by  your  company, 
and  you  must  suffer  as  they  do. 

The  world  judges  in  the  same 
way.  If  you  are  seen  with  evil 
persons,  you  will  be  thought  an  evil 
person.  Besides  this,  you  will  grow 
to  be  like  your  company.  If  your 
companions  are  foolish  or  wicked, 
they  will  soon  make  you  foolish  and 
w7icked  too.  Evil  communications 
corrupt  good  manners ;  this  is  wmat 
the  Bible  says,  and  every  day  we 
see  it  to  be  true. 

Be  very  careful  in  choosing  your 
companions.  Perhaps  those  whom 
you  like  exceedingly  at  first,  will 
turn  out  to  be  very  disagreeable 
after  a  while.  Very  gay  and  enter- 
taining boys  and  girls  are  sometimes 
both  ignorant  and  wicked.  What  a 
dreadful  thing  it  w7ould  be  for  you 
to  fall  into  the  company  of  such ! 
In  order  to  avoid  this,  be  slew  in 


52  LETTERS    TO    A 

forming  attach  merits.  Do  not  be  in 
haste  to  make  friends.  Never  be 
intimate  with  any  person  until  you 
have  talked  with  your  parents  about 
it.  Remember,  they  know  far  bet- 
ter than  you  what  is  right  and  pro- 
per. They  know  of  dangers  that 
are  altogether  unknown  to  you.  It 
ought  to  be  quite  enough  to  make 
you  break  off  any  intimacy,  to  know 
that  it  is  disagreeable  to  your  parents. 
And  let  me  say,  every  young  lady 
should  make  this  a  rule  for  life.  It 
would  prevent  many  evils  which  you 
cannot  now  comprehend. 

When  you  have  gained  a  real 
friend,  you  have  gained  a  treasure. 
Stick  to  your  friend.  Think  of  the 
Persian  song  that  Henry  Martyn 
heard  his  muleteer  sing  at  night. 
Often  have  I  repeated  it  to  myself 
during  the  last  twenty  years. 

"  O,  then,  forsake  thy  friend  for  naught 
That  evil  tongues  may  say; 
The  heart  that  fixeth  where  it  ought. 
No  power  :an  rend  awa\." 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  53 

But  then  be  sure  your  heart  fixes 
"  where  it  ought. ' '  Those  who  make 
friendships  too  quickly,  are  apt  to 
break  them  too  quickly.  Be  con- 
stant, be  faithful,  and  you  will  be 
beloved. 

It  will  do  you  good  to  have  at 
least  one  companion  a  few  years 
older  than  yourself.  To  be  of  use 
to  you,  she  must  be  one  that  is  sensi 
ble,  educated,  good-natured  and  pi- 
ous. She  must  be  a  fit  example  to 
you  in  your  studies,  your  manners, 
and  jour  dress.  She  ought  not  to 
be  a  tattler  or  a  sneerer ;  you  will 
find  out  soon  enough  what  these 
words  mean.  If  you  prefer  her 
company  to  that  of  the  gay  little 
creatures  of  your  own  age,  so  much 
the  better.  She  will  tell  you  your 
faults  without  envy,  and  will  save 
you  from  many  a  mortification. 

Keep   no   company   with   a  bold 
girl.     A   noisy  romp;    or  a  saucy, 
malapert  miss,  who  loves  to  show 
5* 


54  LETTERS    TO    A 

that  she  is  not  afraid;  or  a  vixen, 
who  is  sharp  as  a  she-fox.  These  are 
all  odious.  Avoid  them.  If  possi- 
ble, let  them  not  come  near  you.  Go 
not  near  them.  The  first  improper 
expression  from  a  companion's  lips 
will  be  enough  to  put  you  on  your 
guard.  Though  you  must  treat  her 
with  civility,  and  though  you  may 
never  say  so  aloud,  yet  you  should 
say  to  yourself,  I  am  to  avoid  that 
young  lady. 

Among  your  young  friends  it  is 
proper  for  you  to  be  open  and  light- 
hearted.  It  is  a  beautiful  thing  to 
see  a  group  of  joyous  girls,  all  en- 
joying one  another's  happiness.  Let 
it  never  be  said  that  you  are  proud 
and  unsociable.  Your  companions 
will  soon  see  it,  if  you  hold  your 
head  high,  and  think  yourself  better 
than  they.  Especially  never  look 
down  on  any  because  they  are  poor. 
This  is  silly  and  unkind,  and,  what 
is   mere,   it    is    offensive    to    God 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  55 

Please  to  take  your  New  Testament 
and  learn  those  verses  which  you 
will  find  in  the  second  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  of  St.  James,  and  the  first 
nine  verses. 

The  last  thing  I  have  to  say  about 
your  companions  is  this :  Whoever 
they  may  be,  try  to  do  them  good, 
and  try  to  get  good  from  them. 

And  let  me  hope  that,  among  your 
young  friends,  you  will  not  altogether 
forget  the  old  one  who  now  writes 
to  you. 


56        LETTERS  TO  A 


LETTER  ELEVENTH. 

HEADING. 

My  dear  Mary, — When  I  wrote 
you  a  letter  about  the  book-case,  I 
wrote  chiefly  about  the  outside  of 
books.  Now  let  us  think  a  little 
about  the  inside. 

Mary,  are  you  fond  of  reading! 
I  hope  you  will  be  able  to  answer, 
Yes.  For  if  you  do  not  love  books, 
you  will  never  know  much.  All 
the  learned  people  in  the  world  were 
once  little  children,  and  they  all 
loved  reading. 

It  is  not  the  children  of  the  rich 
only,  who  taste  the  sweets  of  read- 
ing. Books  are  a  comfort  to  the 
poor  also.  They  give  amusement 
and  information,  on  Sundays  and 
leisure  hours  in  the  week,  to  multi- 
tudes of  youth  among  honest,  Chris- 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  57 

dan  labourers.  What  scene  is  more 
beautiful  than  a  group  of  happy 
country  children,  on  a  summer  even- 
ing, seated  on  the  green  with  their 
new  books  ?  There  they  are,  cheer- 
ful and  loving,,  under  the  shade  of 
their  favourite  tree.*  The  cottage 
has  no  one  in  it,  for  the  father  is  in 
the  hay-field,  and  the  mother  is 
milking.  The  children  have  water- 
ed the  flowers,  and  tied  up  the  vines ; 
you  may  see  the  holly-hock  which 
Sally  planted,  peeping  over  the 
fence. 

There  they  sit,  their  hearts  taken 
up  with  the  story  of  David.  John 
is  stopping  a  moment  to  think  of  the 
wickedness  of  Absalom.  See  how 
kindly  his  arm  is  put  around  his 
sister  Ellen.  Even  she,  little  crea- 
ture as  she  is,  can  understand  the 
delightful,  sacred  narrative.  While 
Sally,  who  is  two  years  older,  leans 
upon  her  beloved  brother,  and  catches 

*  See  Frontispiece 


58  LETTERS   TO   A 

every  word  with  breathless  attention. 
The  birds  in  the  trees  are  not  oetter 
pleased  than  they.  And,  long  as 
these  cottage-children  live,  they  will 
remember  with  satisfaction  their 
books  upon  the  green. 

Perhaps  you  think  it  makes  no 
difference  what  books  you  read. 
This  is  a  great  mistake.  Books  are 
a  sort  of  company ;  and  they  talk  to 
you,  even  though  they  have  no 
tongues.  If  they  tell  you  what  is 
good,  they  do  you  good.  If  they 
tell  you  what  is  evil,  they  do  you 
evil.  There  are  all  kinds  of  books 
in  the  world.  Some  are  very  good, 
some  are  very  evil ;  and  there  are 
many  kinds  between  these  two. 
The  same  books  do  not  suit  every 
body.  One  book  is  good  for  an  old 
person,  and  another  for  a  young  per- 
son. One  is  proper  for  your  mother 
or  your  teacher,  and  another  is  pro- 
per for  you.  The  same  books  are 
not    suitable  at    all    times.     Some 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  59 

books  are  for  study,  and  some  for 
amusement.  The  books  for  study 
will  be  put  into  your  hands  by  your 
teachers.  I  am  going  to  speak  only 
about  the  books  which  you  read  out 
of  school. 

The  Bible  is  the  best  of  books ; 
but  this  will  be  for  a  letter  by  itself. 
And  then  it  is  not  a  book  for  amuse- 
ment, but  for  sacred  study. 

Picture-books  and  story-books  are 
those  which  little  readers  love.  And 
if  they  have  stories  and  pictures 
both,  they  think  them  the  finest 
books  in  the  world.  I  will  not  say 
that  you  are  not  to  have  this  sort, 
and  to  like  them  too.  I  know  how 
much  is  to  be  learned  from  good  cuts 
and  engravings ;  and  now,  when 
such  things  are  so  much  cheaper 
and  better  than  they  used  to  be,  it 
would  be  wrong  to  leave  them  out 
of  books.  The  cuts  are  really  a 
better  sort  of  letters,  where  they  are 
made  aright.     And  I  also  know  how 


60  LETTERS    TO    A. 

much  useful  knowledge   has   been 
taught  by  wise  stories  for  the  young. 
I   remember    the   delight   and    the 
great  profit  with  which  I  read  the 
Babes  in  the  Wood,  and  Sandford 
and  Merton,  and  the  Pilgrim's  Pro- 
gress.    So  I  will  not  take  away  your 
stories,  or  your  pictures  either.     But 
take  care  !     You  must  not  be  all  for 
pictures  and  stories.     I  will  tell  you 
what  happened  to  Miss  Price,  a  young 
lady  whom   you  never  saw7.     Miss 
Price  was  a  sprightly  girl  of  four- 
teen.    She  loved   stories  so  much, 
that  she  borrowed  all  the  story-books 
she   could,   from   her   school-mates. 
She  did    not   care   much  whether 
they  were  good  or  bad,  so  that  they 
wrere  stories.     When  she  went  visit- 
ing, she  had    hardly  taken  off  her 
bonnet,  before  she  looked  around  to 
find  what  she  called  a  "pretty  book." 
By  a  pretty  book  Miss  Price  meant 
a  story-book.     When  she  had  found 
one  to  her  mind,  she  sat  down  and 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  61 

devoured  it.  She  forgot  her  friends, 
and  was  wrapt  up  in  her  book.  This 
was  rude.  She  would  sit  on  the 
floor,  or  at  the  door,  and  never  stop 
till  she  had  ended  the  volume.  This 
was  foolish.  It  taught  her  to  read 
too  fast.  It  taught  her  to  read  for 
amusement  only.  It  led  her  to  read 
many  improper  and  even  wicked 
and  false  books.  And  though  Miss 
Price  read  so  much,  she  never  be- 
came learned, -or  prudent,  or  wise; 
but  grew  up  to  be  a  poor,  empty- 
headed  novel  reader,  which  she  is 
to  this  day,  though  she  is  sixty  years 
old,  and  reads  with  spectacles.  I 
beg,  then,  that  you  will  read  what  is 
good,  even  when  you  read  for  your 
pleasure.  And  to  find  out  what  is 
good,  the  shortest  way  is  to  ask  those 
who  know;  that  is,  your  mother, 
your  elder  sister,  or  your  teacher. 

The  Sunday-school  library  will 
furnish  you  with  hundreds  of  excel- 
lent books,  most  of  which  will  enter- 

6 


62  LETTERS    TO    A 

tain  you,  and,  if  they  are  what  they 
ought  to  be,*  they  will  do  you  good, 
if  you  read  them  properly  and  at  the 
proper  time. 

By  degrees  you  must  get  into  the 
way  of  reading  books  which  are 
more  sober  and  more  instructive 
than  those  I  have  been  speaking 
about.  You  will  go  from  one  sort 
to  another,  until  you  read  biography 
and  history,  and  even  more  serious 
and  difficult  subjects.  Do  not  throw 
aside  a  book  because  it  tells  no  tale, 
or  because  it  has  no  pictures,  or  be- 
cause it  is  dry.  Perhaps  it  is  dry 
only  at  the  beginning.  If  you  read 
a  little  further,  perhaps  you  will  be- 
come interested  in  it.  Young  ladies 
are  in  a  very  poor  way  to  improve, 
if  they  lay  down  every  thing  that 
is  dry. 

*  The  American  Sunday-School  Union  publish 
about  500  bound  volumes,  (1843;)  and  their  pub- 
lications may  be  safely  recommended  to  children 
and  youth  of  all  classes. 


VERY   YOUNG    tADY.  63 

When  you  are  tired,  lay  the  book 
down.  I  never  knew  much  good  to 
come  of  reading  when  one  is  tired. 
I  mean,  now,  that  reading  which 
takes  place  out  of  school.  Do  not 
get  into  a  slight,  hasty,  hurrying 
way  of  reading.  Some  girls  pride 
themselves  on  getting  through  a 
book  faster  than  anybody  else. 
These  are  silly  girls,  indeed.  They 
read  every  thing  at  a  hop-skip-and- 
jump.  There  is  no  more  merit  in 
reading  fast,  than  in  eating  fast :  and 
reading  too  fast  injures  the  mind 
just  as  much  as  eating  too  fast  in- 
jures the  body.  Read  slowly  enough 
to  understand  every  thing  you  read. 
Skip  nothing.  If  the  book  is  fit  for 
you  to  read,  it  should  be  read  from 
beginning  to  end.  Read  so  that 
you  will  remember ;  and,  if  you  are 
much  pleased  with  particular  parts, 
turn  to  them  again,  and  read  them 
over.      Do    the    same    with    those 


64  LETTERS    TO    A 

places  which  you  find  hard  to  un- 
derstand. 

By  observing  these  rules,  and 
especially,  by  following  the  advice 
of  wise  friends,  instead  of  your  own 
ignorant  little  head,  you  will  escape 
many  of  the  evils  which  make  so 
many  young  ladies  ridiculous,  even 
in  companies  where  they  think  they 
are  greatly  admired. 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  65 


LETTER  TWELFTH. 

DRESS. 

My  dear  Mary, — It  is  hardly 
necessary  for  me  to  write  to  you 
concerning  your  dress,  because  your 
parents  are  too  wise  and  too  affec- 
tionate to  let  you  go  wrong  in  this 
matter.  But  if  I  went  by  this  rule, 
perhaps  I  should  not  give  you  advice 
about  any  thing.  It  is  not,  then,  to 
teach  your  parents,  or  because  they 
do  not  teach  you,  that  I  choose  these 
subjects.  Shall  I  tell  you  my  rea- 
son ?  It  is  this  :  Very  young  people 
are  apt  to  think  they  are  wiser  than 
their  parents.  I  will  not  flatter  you: 
you  may  be  tempted  to  think  so  your- 
self. And  there  is  nothing  about 
which  children  more  commonly 
differ  from  those  who  know  better, 
than  in  this  very  matter  of  dress. 
6* 


66  LETTERS   TO    A 

• 

Lay  it  down  as  a  rule  to  yourself, 
to  be  cheerfully  satisfied  with  the 
dress  which  your  honoured  parents 
give  you.  Perhaps  you  think  it  not 
fine  enough,  or  not  gay  enough,  or 
not  fashionable  enough.  Perhaps 
you  desire  some  article  of  dress  like 
this,  or  that,  which  your  young 
friends  have.  You  will  be  ready 
enough  to  make  your  wishes  known. 
Now,  if  your  mother  says  No,  utter 
not  another  word.  Let  her  will  be 
yours.  Say  to  yourself,  "  My  dear 
mother  has  never  denied  me  any 
thing  without  cause ;  she  is  wiser 
than  I ;  she  knows  best  what  is  pro- 
per for  me,  and  what  she  can  afford." 

Yes,  my  dear  Mary,  that  kind 
mother  has  often  sat  up  late,  by  the 
side  of  your  little  bed,  toiling  to  pre- 
pare something  for  you  to  appear  in. 
Parents  have  many  an  hour  of 
anxious  labour  that  is  unknown  to 
their  little  ones.  Think  of  this. 
It  is  better  that  you  should   be  a 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  67 

little  plainer  than  you  like  to  be, 
than  that  your  father  and  mother 
should  lay  out  for  you  what  might 
be  used  for  wiser  and  better  ends. 
You  do  not  know  the  value  of  money 
as  they  do ,  especially  in  these  hard 
times,  when  many,  even  of  the  rich, 
have  been  brought  to  want. 

It  is  a  common  sin  of  the  young, 
to  set  their  hearts  too  much  on  dress. 
Do  you  remember  those  good  lines 
of  Dr.  Watts? 

"  Why  should  our  garments,  (made  to  hide 
Our  parents'  shame,)  provoke  our  pride? 
The  art  of  dress  did  ne'er  begin, 
Till  Eve,  our  mother,  learned  to  sin." 

Never  think  less  of  your  com 
panions  because  they  are  not  so 
finely  dressed  as  yourself.  It  may 
be,  their  poor  parents  have  to  work 
hard  to  enable  their  children  to 
appear  decently.  Thank  God  that 
He  has  given  you  parents  who  are 
able  to  provide  for  you,  but  let  not 


68  LETTERS   TO   A 

Satan  tempt  you  to  be  puffed  up 
with  a  little  outside  show. 

Did  you  ever  see  a  young  lady 
who  looked  too  often  in  the  glass? 
I  have  been  told  there  are  such. 
You  may  remember  such  a  one 
How  the  young  thing  admires  what 
she  sees  in  that  mirror !  How  many 
changes  she  makes  before  it !  How 
she  admires  that  pretty  face,  those 
ringlets  and  ribands !  How  she 
smiles,  and  with  what  an  air  she 
walks  away,  and  looks  around  to  see 
who  beholds  her !  O  !  let  me  pray 
you  to  despise  all  this.  Be  always 
neat  and  cleanly,  even  to  the  ex- 
treme ;  but  when  you  find  that  you 
are  dressed,  let  it  go  out  of  your  mind. 
Try  to  forget  yourself  a  little.  It  is 
a  hard  lesson,  but  it  will  do  you 
good  to  learn  it.  Pride  and  vanity 
are  sins  against  God ;  and  I  hope 
you  will  seek  to  please  your  Maker 
and  Redeemer,  even  in  your  apparel 

Perhaps  you  think  that  a,  lady's 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  69 

dress  is  too  small  a  matter  for  me  to 
write  about.  If  so,  you  are  wrong. 
The  apostle  Peter  did  not  think  so, 
for  he  speaks  on  this  very  subject, 
and  lays  down  a  rule  for  the  raiment 
of  Christian  women;  saying,  "Whose 
adorning,  let  it  not  be  that  outward 
adorning,  of  plaiting  the  hair,  and 
of  wearing  of  gold,  or  of  putting  on 
of  apparel ;  but  let  it  be  the  hidden 
man  of  the  heart,  in  that  which  is 
not  corruptible,  even  the  ornament 
of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit,  which  is 
in  the  sight  of  God  of  great  price.' ' 
I  have  long  thought  it  one  of  the 
faults  of  young  girls,  in  our  day  and 
our  country,  that  they  wish  to  be 
women  too  soon.  Long  oefore  their 
school-days  are  over,  they  vie  with 
one  another  in  finery,  and  seek  to  ap- 
pear just  as  fully  and  as  expensively 
dressed  as  those  who  have  already 
come  out  in  company.  If  you  wish 
to  be  happy  and  useful,  be  modest 
in  this,  as  well  as  in  other  things. 


70  INTERS   TO   A 

Keep  in  the  shade.  Be  humble 
and  patient.  You  will  get  into  the 
gay  and  evil  world  soon  enough, 
and  you  will  find  those  roses  sur- 
rounded with  thorns.  Beauty, 
whether  of  face  oi  apparel,  is  very 
fading.  "  Favour  u  deceitful,  and 
beauty  is  vain;  but  a  vvomin  that 
feareth  the  Lord,  sfa«  sh-sO  b* 
praised." 


VERY    YOUNG   LAD*  71 


LETTER  THIRTEEN'tM 

CARE    OF   YOUR   ROOM. 

My  dear  Mary, — Whetbei  fou 
nave  a  room  all  to  yourself,  wbr  ii  is 
very  desirable,  or  occupy  one  with,  a 
sister  or  companion,  it  is  proper  that 
you  should  keep  it  in  order.  A  place 
for  every  thing,  and  every  thing  in  its 
place.  This  would  be  a  very  good 
inscription  for  your  table.  It  is  a 
shame  for  a  young  lady  to  be  very 
careful  of  her  person,  and  very  negli- 
gent of  her  room.  It  looks  as  if  she 
had  no  real  love  of  neatness  and 
order,  but  did  every  thing  to  be  seen 
of  others. 

Show  me  the  inside  of  a  lady's 
private  apartment,  and  I  can  learn  a 
great  deal  of  her  character.  Sup- 
pose 1  see  the  table  covered  with 
oooks,  papers,  needles  and  thread, 


72  LETTERS    TO    A 

brushes,  combs,  unfinished  work, 
and  half-eaten  fruit.  Suppose  I  find 
half  the  drawers  open,  and  chairs 
covered  with  pieces  of  clothing,  and 
the  floor  strewed  with  a  dozen  dif- 
ferent articles ;  a  ewer  on  the  sofa,  a 
bandbox  on  the  bed,  and  a  candle- 
stick on  the  window-seat.  I  say  to 
myself,  here  must  be  an  indolent, 
disorderly  little  body.  She  has  no 
love  of  order,  no  regularity  of  habits, 
no  neatness.  Unless  she  changes  her 
ways,  she  will  grow  up  to  be  a  very 
disagreeable  person. 

You  cannot  begin  too  soon.  Ha- 
bits formed  in  childhood  and  youth, 
last  a  whole  lifetime.  An  old  habit 
is  as  hard  to  change  as  an  old  tree. 
Look  at  the  oak  in  your  father's 
lawn.  Its  largest  limb  has  grown 
crooked  and  knotty.  All  the  men 
m  the  country  could  not  straighten 
't.  But  a  child  could  have  straight- 
ened it  when  it  was  a  twig.  "  Just 
as  the  twig  is  bent,"  you  know,  "the 


ver^    y:>ung  lady.  73 

tree's  inclined."  This  is  true  of  all 
habits.  Take  care,  says  a  wise  man, 
how  you  set  your  habits.  If  you  set 
a  hedge  crooked,  it  will  be  crooked. 
Now,  if  you  get  into  a  habit  of 
slovenliness  about  your  room,  your 
books,  and  your  wTork-things,  it  will 
stick  by  you,  and  you  will  become  a 
very  disagreeable  companion,  and  no 
one  will  like  to  visit  you,  or  to  enter- 
tain you. 

The  rule  is  good  for  a  room,  as 
well  as  for  a  work-shop,  or  any  other 
place  :  A  place  for  every  tiling,  and 
every  tiling  in  its  place.  This  will 
save  many  an  hour  of  looking  for 
things.  Why  is  Miss  Jane  so  late 
at  family  worship? — "O,"  replies 
the  maid, — "  Miss  Jane  cannot  find 
her  collar,  or  her  apron,  or  her  slip- 
pers." Why  is  Miss  Anne  so  late 
at  school? — "She  is  busy  looking 
for  her  Geography."  Why  is  Miss 
Lucy  absent  from  the  Bible-class? — 
Answrer.     "  She    has    mislaid     her 

7 


74  LETTERS    TO    A 

Bible"  Now,  if  Miss  Jane,  Miss 
Anne,  and  Miss  Lucy  had  had  a 
place  for  every  thing,  and  every 
thing  was  in  its  place,  they  would 
not  have  lost  a  moment  of  time,  and 
would  have  been  in  much  better 
humour,  besides.  For  I  have  ob- 
served, that  nothing  crosses  a  girl's 
temper  more  than  the  hurry  of 
searching  for  things  which  have 
been  mislaid.  The  indolent  and 
careless  child  is  ready  to  lay  the 
blame  on  brothers,  sisters,  servants, 
or  any  one  but  herself. 

If  you  only  form  the  habit,  it  is 
as  easy  to  do  things  right  as  wrong. 
It  is  as  easy  to  lay  away  a  dress,  or 
a  drawing,  or  a  map,  or  a  piece  ot 
work,  or  a  riband,  in  a  neat,  proper 
way,  as  to  throw  them  altogether  in 
a  heap.  Shopkeepers  know  this, 
and  hence  they  can  pack  away 
twice  as  much  in  a  small  space  as 
you  or  I  could  do.  I  dare  say  }rou 
have  often  wondered  at  the  ease  with 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  75 

which  the  woman  who  keeps  the 
fancy  store  in  Smith  street  will 
hand  down  any  one  of  a  thousand 
articles.  She  knows  where  she  has 
put  every  one.  She  never  puts  it 
anywhere  else.  Therefore  she  never 
has  to  look  anywhere  else  to  find  it. 
And,  what  is  more,  every  thing  in 
the  shop  looks  tidy  and  graceful. 
Order  and  method  produce  conveni- 
ence and  beauty.  Let  it  be  so  in 
every  spot  you  have  the  care  of; 
whether  chamber,  closet,  cabinet, 
bureau,  toilet,  box,  or  basket. 

The  rule  in  farms  is,  Leave  things 
as  you  would  find  them.  That  is, 
Do  not  leave  your  rake  in  the  hay- 
field,  or  your  axe  in  the  wood;  if  you 
do,  you  will  have  trouble  in  finding 
them.  I  have  often  wished  young 
ladies  would  have  some  such  rule 
Write  it  down — embroider  it  on 
your  reticule — print  it  on  your  mind 
— Leave  things  as  you  would 
find  them.     You  will  then  always 


76  LETTERS    TO    A 

find  them  easily,  and  find  them 
right.  How  much  of  life  is  spent 
in  such  questions  as  these  ? — .0  ! 
where  is  my  dressing-case  ?  Has 
anybody  run  off  with  my  combs? 
I  dc  wonder  who  has  thrown  about 
my  gloves  in  this  way?  Has  any 
one  seen  a  pencil-case  ?  Pray  help 
me  to  find  that  bunch  of  keys.  Do 
you  think  I  shall  be  in  time  for 
church?  I've  had  an  hour's  search 
for  my  muff! — All  such  loss  of  time 
and  temper  will  be  prevented,  if  you 
will  observe  my  directions.  And 
let  your  apartment  be  always  in 
order,  so  that  it  may  never  be  a  sur- 
prise  or  a  mortification  to  you,  to 
hear  a  knock  at  the  door.  So  much 
about  the  care  of  your  room, 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  77 


LETTER  FOURTEENTH 

HOUSEHOLD    WORK. 

My  dear  Mary, — You  are  not  a 
queen  or  a  princess,  and  therefore 
you  must  expect  to  do  some  work. 
Even  if  you  were  a  queen  or  a 
princess,  I  would  advise  you  to  use 
your  hands  a  little.  They  were 
given  to  you  for  that  purpose,  and 
you  would  soon  be  wretched,  even 
m  a  palace,  with  scores  of  attend- 
ants and  millions  of  money,  if  you 
had  nothing  to  do.  I  dare  say  Queen 
Victoria  finds  a  little  employment 
useful,  though  I  have  never  heard 
whether  she  rubs  down  furniture,  or 
polishes  the  silver. 

But  you  are  not  queen,  Mary,  yet. 
You  are  a  little  damsel  of  dear,  free 
America.    You  will,  with  the  blessing 

-c  God,  grow  up  to  be  an  American 

7* 


78  LETTERS    TO    A 

woman.  Now,  American  women 
have  to  work.  One  reason  is,,  that 
the  servants  of  this  country  are  not 
so  good  as  those  of  Europe;  they 
are  hard  to  be  got,  and  they  are 
often  changed.  So  that  every  lady 
must  know  something  about  domes- 
tic affairs. 

Do  you  not  know  that  your  mother 
often  has  a  new  maid-servant,  who 
has  almost  every  thing  to  learn? 
Do  not  you  see  that  your  mother 
could  not  instruct  her,  unless  she 
had  learned  herself?  Is  she  not 
sometimes  for  a  day  or  more  with- 
out a  cook,  without  a  chamber-maid, 
or  without  either?  And  do  you  not 
admire  her  for  the  cheerfulness, 
readiness,  and  ability,  with  which 
she  goes  about  the  labour  herself? 
All  this  is  unavoidable  in  our  coun- 
try. You  must  come  to  it.  You 
had  better  prepare  for  it  in  time. 

You  should  not  complain  of  this 
state  of  things.     It  is  good      It  is 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  79 

good  for  the  health  and  spirits. 
Look  at  those  young  ladies  who 
have  never  done  any  thing  harder 
than  to  hem  a  handkerchief,  dress  a 
flower-vase,  or  knit  a  bead-purse. 
Are  their  cheeks  red?  No.  Are 
their  teeth  sound  ?  No.  Are  their 
hands  plump?  No.  Are  their 
spines  straight?  No.  Are  they 
good  walkers  ?  No.  Do  they  come 
to  their  breakfast  with  an  appetite  1 
No.  Do  they  come  from  a  walk 
full  of  glee  and  spirit  ?  No.  They 
are  pale  or  sallow,  slender  and  stoop- 
ing, narrow  in  the  chest,  weak  in 
the  limbs,  with  sunken  cheeks,  bony- 
arms  and  hands,  and  a  look  of  wea- 
riness and  sloth  which  makes  you 
almost  pity  them. 

How  different  is  the  case  with  a 
young  New  England  girl,  who  has 
learned  a  little  of  every  household 
employment !  Her  father  is  wealthy, 
and  has  a  number  of  domestics,  but 
he  has  no  idea  of  letting  his  daughter, 


80  LETTERS    TO    A 

Grace,  grow  up  in  idleness.  If 
Grace  could  be  so  foolish  as  to  think 
that  household  work  was  beneath 
her  notice,  he  would  look  very  grave 
and  say:  My  daughter!  nothing  that 
is  your  duty  is  beneath  you.  It  is 
your  duty  to  learn  how  to  take  care 
of  the  family.  You  may  some  day 
be  poor,  and  then  such  knowledge 
will  be  all  your  living.  But  if  you 
should  be  rich,  you  can  never  con- 
duct a  household,  unless  you  know 
how  things  are  done ;  and  there  is 
no  way  of  learning  how  things  are 
done,  so  good  as  to  do  them. 

Miss  Grace  thinks  with  her  father, 
She  wishes  to  be  a  comfort  to  him. 
She  keeps  the  daily  accounts,  and 
here  she  finds  the  great  use  of  the 
arithmetic  which  sue  learned  at 
school.  She  rises  early,  and  sees  to 
the  dairy.  She  trips  out  among  the 
flowers,  and  is  not  afraid  of  a  wet 
shoe,  or  of  blistering  her  little  hand 
•vith  a  rake  or  a  pruning-knife.     She 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  81 

sees  that  breakfast  is  in  time  and 
place ;  and  when  she  has  attended 
to  the  tea-things,  knows  that  every 
article  is  in  order,  and  in  its  place. 
She  oversees  the  laundry-work,  and 
has  been  long  acquainted  with  clear- 
starching and  ironing.  She  is  al- 
ready a  good  pastry-cook,  and  is  at 
no  loss  how  to  toss  up  a  pretty  dessert, 
even  in  the  worst  seasons.  She  has 
been  known  to  mount  her  pony  and 
scour  the  neighbourhood  for  a  supply 
of  eggs  or  poultry,  when  there  was  an 
extraordinary  demand.  What  is  the 
consequence?  G**ace  is  the  most 
rosy,  healthy  creature  of  her  whole 
connection.  Her  sleep  is  like  an 
infant's.  Her  joyous  voice  tells  of  a 
light  heart  and  a  good  constitution. 
She  never  knows  the  moment  when 
she  does  not  know  what  to  do  next. 
*  Now,  my  dear  Mary,  I  advise  you 
to  begin  as  early  as  possible  to  be 
youi   mother's  helper  in  every  part 


82 


LETTERS    TO    A 


of  household  affairs.  Take  as  much 
off  her  hands  as  you  can.  Make 
yourself  more  and  more  useful. 
You  will  never  regret  it.  It  will 
never  hinder  your  learning  or  your 
accomplishment. 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  83 


LETTER  FIFTEENTH. 

NEEDLEWORK. 

M  *  dear  Mary, — Do  not  smile 
because  a  man  writes  about  needle- 
work. A  very  great  and  very  wise 
man  wrote  about  the  same,  as  much 
as  two  thousand  five  hundred  and 
forty-three  years  ago.  This  excel- 
lent writer  thought  fit  to  give  a 
description  of  the  true  ]ady.  The 
picture  was  made  for  Asia,  but  if 
you  alter  a  few  lines  and  colours,  it 
will  do  for  America.  The  lady 
whom  he  describes  "seeketh  wool 
and  flax,  and  worketh  willingly  with 
her  hands."  She  is  an  early  riser. 
Do  not  think  she  is  some  poor  semp- 
stress ;  no  :  she  is  wealthy,  and  buys 
real  estate,  and  has  vineyards  of  her 
own.  She  must  have  a  large  num- 
ber of   dependents,    for    she    rises 


84  LETTERS    TO    A 

before  day  to  give  out  work  to  her 
maids ;  anc  "  her  candle  goeth  not 
out  by  night."  "  Shelayeth  her  hands 
to  the  spindle,  and  her  hands  hold 
the  distaff."  Perhaps  you  think  she 
confines  herself  to  plain  work.  Not 
so.  "  She  maketh  herself  coverings 
of  tapestry  ;  her  clothing  is  silk  and 
purple."  "  She  looketh  well  to  the 
ways  of  her  household,  and  eateth 
not  the  bread  of  idleness." 

Such  is  the  picture  of  a  lady,  as 
painted  by  King  Solomon.  You 
will  find  it  at  length  in  the  last 
chapter  of  Proverbs ;  and  I  hope 
you  will  take  your  Bible,  find  the 
passage  in  it,  read  it,  and  commit  it 
to  memory. 

I  know  there  are  people  who 
think  they  are  wiser  than  Solomon  ; 
but  I  counsel  you  never  to  take  their 
advice.  I  know  young  people  who 
pretend  that  they  are  so  fond  of 
books  and  studies,  that  they  have 
no    time    for  work.      But    I   have 


VERY    VOUNG    LAI  Y.  85 

always  found  them  idle,  if  not  fool- 
ish people.  The  best  scholars  I 
know,  the  best  instructed  and  ac- 
complished women  I  have  ever  met, 
are  those  who  have  paid  great  atten- 
tion to  the  proper  arts  of  female  life. 

Give  some  part  of  every  day  to 
domestic  employments.  Learn  in 
time  to  sew,  to  knit,  to  cut  out  work, 
to  do  every  thing  with  your  hands, 
which  you  ought  to  know  how  to  do 
when  you  grow  to  be  a  woman.  I 
would  have  my  daughters  acquainted 
with  every  sort  of  work  which  ladies 
ever  do.  If  they  live  in  the  country, 
it  will  do  them  no  harm  to  card  and 
spin  a  little  now  and  then.  And 
wherever  they  may  live,  they  should 
know  all  about  the  use  of  the  needle. 

I  do  not  forbid  you  to  spend  some 
of  your  time  on  ornamental  work  in 
lace,  embroidery,  and  the  like.  In 
every  age  and  country  this  has  been 
the  entertainment  and  occupation 
o*   your  sex.     It  takes  up  many  a 

8 


80  LETTERS   TO   A 

spare  moment,  enlivens  company, 
enables  one  to  gratify  friends,  fur- 
nishes cheap  presents,  and  prepares 
for  more  solid  and  useful  labours. 
But,  after  all,  it  is  plain,  domestic 
needlework,  which  is  the  grand 
thing.  Give  yourself  a  good  deal 
to  this.  Try  your  hand  at  every 
thing  of  the  sort,  but  be  sure  you 
try  nothing  without  learning  to  do  it 
well.  Never  get  the  name  of  a 
hasty,  slighting,  slovenly  needle- 
woman. What  is  well  done,  says 
'.he  proverb,  is  twice  done.  Learn 
.o  work  well,  and  then  you  will 
learn  to  work  fast.  Finish  every 
thing  that  you  begin.  I  once  knew 
a  person  who  would  begin  a  hun- 
dred things,  and  not  finish  ten.  Be 
patient.  Be  willing  to  pick  out 
wrong  work,  ever  so  often,  and  do  it 
over.  Be  resolute,  and  you  will 
conquer  difficulties.  Be  uniform ; 
that  is,  be  always  the  same,  and  not. 
like  some  I  ha  re  seen,  very  active 


VERY    TOUNG   LADY.  87 

at  one  time  and  very  slow  and 
slothful  at  another.  Be  obliging; 
always  ready  to  assist  others  in  their 
work,  and  to  teach  them  what  they 
do  not  know. 

You  are  growing  rather  too  large 
to  spend  all  your  time  in  working 
for  your  doll.  Perhaps  you  are 
ashamed  at  my  even  naming  such  a 
thing  as  a  doll  to  you.  Very  wTell 
You  will  find  enough  to  do  in  work- 
ing for  the  sweet  infant  that  prattles 
about  the  house.  And,  besides  this, 
you  cannot  begin  too  soon  to  employ 
yourself  in  working  a  little  for  the 
poor.  The  ancient  Hebrew  lady 
did  so,  as  the  wise  man  tells  us. 
"■She  stretcheth  out  her  hands  to 
the  poor;  yea,  she  reacheth  forth 
tier  hands  to  the  needy."  Find  out 
some  poor  person  for  whom  you  may 
make  a  garment.  Help  to  fit  out 
some  child  to  come  to  Sunday-school. 
Alter  some  old  affair,  so  as  to  have  a 
resent  ready,  when  the  poor  womai 


88  LETTERS    TO    A 

next  comes  to  your  door  to  ask  alms 
for  her  sick  daughter.  It  is  better 
to  work  for  those  who  cannot  work, 
than  to  give  them  money. 

But  my  best  advice  on  this  subject 
is  not  so  good  as  that  which  you 
will  get  from  your  mother  and  your 
teacher.  Follow  their  advice.  When 
your  own  notions  about  work  disa- 
gree with  theirs,  you  may  be  sute 
your  notions  are  wrong.  The  true 
rule  for  children  is  to  do  as  they  are 
bidden.  And  if  I  should  ever  hear 
of  your  contending  with  your  pa- 
rents, or  being  slow  and  sullen  in 
yielding  to  their  will,  I  should  grieve 
very  much,  and  conclude  that  all  my 
letters  had  been  in  vain. 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  89 


LETTER  SIXTEENTH. 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 

My  dear  Mary, — A  young  lady 
is  truly  acomplished  when  her  mind 
is  cultivated,  when  her  manners  are 
gentle,  and  her  heart  renewed 
These  are  the  true  accomplishments. 
But  when  we  use  this  word  in  con- 
versation, we  commonly  mean  some- 
thing much  less  valuable ;  some- 
thing which  is  outward,  showy,  and 
meant  to  gain  admiration.  I  am  not 
going  to  quarrel  with  a  word  ;  so  we 
may  talk  about  the  things  them- 
selves, which  are  thought  to  make  a 
young  lady  accomplished.  I  have 
already  said  something  about  needle- 
work, perhaps  as  much  as  a  man 
ought  to  say  on  such  a  subject. 
School-girls  usually  have  a  variety 
of  little  performances  in  this  line, 
8* 


90  LETTERS   TO   A 

which  iiey  teach  one  another.  Do 
not  waste  time  on  them,  but  do  not 
despise  them.  They  will  cheer  long 
winter  evenings.  They  will  employ 
your  fingers,  while  you  listen  to  the 
book  which  your  brother  or  your 
uncles  read.  They  will  afford  you 
the  means  of  showing  your  attach- 
ment to  dear  friends,  by  nice  little 
presents.  They  will  enable  you  to 
contribute  to  benevolent  objects  from 
your  own  earnings. 

Drawing  is  reckoned  one  of  the 
ornamental  branches.  It  is  such, 
but  it  is  more.  I  consider  it  one  of 
the  useful  ones.  There  is  a  great 
error  in  regard  to  this,  among  grown 
people  as  wTell  as  children.  They 
look  on  drawing  and  painting  as 
mere  play.  They  may  be  so,  for 
they  are  very  entertaining :  I  know 
nothing  more  so.  But  they  are  im 
proving  and  valuable  also.  I  would 
have  every  child  of  mine  to  learn 
how  to  draw  and  paint.      I  hope 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  91 

you  will  begin  early,  indeed,  as  soon 
as  you  can  get  a  good  instructor. 
For  what  is  drawing  but  a  sort  of 
writing  ?  It  is  the  writing  of  things, 
not  of  words.  You  may  carry  it 
too  far,  but  so  you  may  reading  or 
writing.  Your  parents  will  see  to 
this,  and  you  will  obey  them. 

Ask  your  mother  and  friends  to  give 
you  their  advice  about  the  different 
sorts  of  fancy-work  which  are  taught 
in  schools.  Some  of  these  are  in 
paper,  others  in  wax,  in  wire,  in 
crystals,  in  shells,  in  mosaic,  in  gyp- 
sum, and  in  gold-leaf  and  feathers. 
I  have  seen  some  very  tasteful,  and 
others  very  absurd.  Remember  al- 
ways, that  such  prettinesses  are  for 
odd  moments,  not  for  the  serious 
hours  of  life. 

What  shall  I  say  of  dancing?  It 
was  once  a  religious  service,  and  was 
practised  by  the  best  of  people.  It 
is  now  a  frivolous  and  tempting  in- 
dulgenc  e,  and  is  excelled  in  by  some 


92  LETTERS   TO   A 

of  the  most  abandoned  characters 
In  itself,  to  dance  is  as  innocent  as 
to  hop.  But,  if  hopping  ever  brings 
my  daughters  to  such  company,  such 
exposure,  and  such  boldness,  as  are 
encouraged  at  balls  and  assemblies, 
I  shall  think  it  right  for  them  to  hop 
no  more.  I  have  observed  that  when 
people  are  converted,  they  very 
generally  give  up  these  things ;  and 
that  those  who  frequent  them  most, 
are  least  interested  in  religion. 

But,  my  dear  child,  you  will  be 
ready  enough  to  run  after  what  is 
ornamental  and  amusing,  without 
any  letters  from  me  about  it.  They 
are  good  in  their  place,  but  you  may 
be  good  and  happy  without  them. 
They  may  be  compared  to  the  des- 
sert at  table,  or  to  flowers  in  a  garden, 
or  to  jewels  in  a  dress ;  you  can  do 
without  them.  As  long  as  you  live, 
try  to  think  most  of  what  is  most 
important.  Get  the  solids,  and  .ef 
the  others  come  if  they  choose. 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  93 

But  never  affect  any  sourness 
about  these  things.  If  you  dislike 
any  pursuit  yourself,  do  not  dislike 
your  neighbour  for  enjoying  it.  Ne- 
ver pretend  to  be  so  very  wise  as  to 
look  down  on  the  plays  or  employ- 
ments of  your  companions,  unless 
they  are  really  foolish,  or  injurious. 
I  know  few  things  more  ridiculous 
and  disgusting  than  a  fastidious, 
fault-finding,  dissatisfied,  sneering 
girl.  These  are  the  faults  of  peevish 
age;  they  sit  badly  on  youth.  Learn 
of  those  who  know  better  than  you ; 
but  never  envy  them,  and  never 
despise  them.  Humility  and  love 
are  great  accomplishments. 


94  LETTERS   TO    A 


LETTER  SEVENTEENTH. 

MUSIC. 

My  dear  Mary, — When  I  wrote 
to  you  about  what  are  called  accom- 
plishments, I  said  nothing  of  Music, 
though  it  is  the  chief  of  them.  The 
reason  was,  I  intended  to  devote  a 
little  letter  to  this  subject ;  which  I 
now  proceed  to  do.  When  I  was  a 
little  boy,  I  think  there  was  more 
singing  of  hymns  and  less  learning 
of  music  than  there  is  now.  It  was 
not  common  to  see  a  piano-forte,  ex- 
cept in  the  houses  of  the  wealthy. 
A  guitar  was  a  great  rarity  ;  and  as 
to  a  harp,  I  do  not  remember  to  have 
seen  one  in  a  private  dwelling,  until 
I  was  in  college.  I  need  not  tell 
you  what  a  change  has  taken  place 
since  then.  A  parlour  is  hardly 
thought  to  be  furnished  now,  without 


VERY   YOUNG    LADY,  r)6 

a  piano-forte.  Many  young  ladies 
have  both  guitar  and  piano.  And 
even  the  harp,  a  most  expensive 
instrument,  is  becoming  common 
among  rich  people.  No  boarding- 
school  can  gain  pupils  without  a 
music-teacher :  and  the  thrumming 
of  beginners  is  the  noise  one  oftenest 
hears  in  passing  by  such  institutions. 
In  some  countries,  such  as  Italy 
and  Germany,  music  is  the  delight  of 
the  common  people.  In  America  it  is 
cultivated  more  for  display.  Young 
people  who  have  no  genius  for  it, 
beseech  their  parents  to  let  them 
learn  ;  and  hence  there  are  hundreds 
of  wretched  bunglers,  who  murder 
the  tunes  they  pretend  to  play,  and 
annoy  whole  neighbourhoods  by  their 
noise.  I  am  a  great  admirer  of  music, 
especially  of  vocal  music,  which  all 
judges  consider  the  best.  But  I  see 
no  reason  why  every  girl  in  the  land 
should  be  dragged  to  the  piano.  I 
have  had  great  delight  fiom  hearing 


96  LETTERS    TO    A 

fine  music,  but  I  sometimes  think  I 
have  had  as  much  pain,  from  hear- 
ing what  was  bad  ;  and  there  is  ten 
times  as  much  bad  as  good. 

Your  parents  will  judge  whether 
it  is  best  that  you  should  take  les- 
sons. Do  what  they  say.  There 
are  reasons  known  to  them,  which 
cannot  be  known  to  you.  But  if 
you  learn  music,  learn  it  thoroughly. 
It  is  impossible  to  do  this,  unless  you 
give  great  attention  to  the  principles. 
Begin  wrong,  and  you  will  be  wrong 
for  life. 

Many  of  the  songs  which  I  see 
on  the  music-stands  of  young  ladies, 
are  not  lit  to  be  sung  by  a  rational 
and  immortal  being.  Many  of  them 
are  foolish,  and  some  of  them  are 
wicked. 

Cultivate  your  voice.  Take  every 
occasion  which  is  offered  to  you,  to 
learn  to  sing.  I  hope  you  will  be 
ashamed  to  sing  entirely  "  by  ear," 
as  it  is  commonly  called.     Learn  to 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  9? 

read  music  with  ease.  Even  little 
children  in  Germany  do  so.  It  is  as 
easy  as  any  other  reading,  if  you 
only  begin  in  time,  and  pay  proper 
attention  to  it.  Just  consider,  what 
a  pleasant  thing  it  is,  to  take  up  a 
piece  of  vocal  music,  and  sing  it  off 
at  sight,  without  the  help  of  an  in- 
strument. Take  good  care  not  to 
be  one  of  those  young  ladies  who 
can  never  sing,  unless  they  are  seated 
at  the  piano. 

Get  as  many  of  your  brothers, 
sisters,  and  friends,  as  you  can,  to 
join  you.  In  this  way  you  will  learn 
what  is  meant  by  Harmony.  You 
will  improve  much  faster  in  this 
way  and  with  much  more  pleasure. 
How  delightful  it  is,  to  see  a  group 
of  happy  children  gathered  on  some 
holiday,  and  to  hear  their  clear 
voices  all  joining  in  concord !  I  wish 
it  was  as  common  in  our  country  as 
it  is  in  some  others. 

If  your  parents  find  that  yo*a  have 
9 


98  LETTERS    TO    A 

no  love  for  music,  and  are  unwilling 
to  entertain  your  friends  by  prac- 
tising what  you  have  been  learning 
I  hope  they  will  lock  up  your  instru- 
ment, and  cause  your  lessons  in  this 
art  to  cease.  But  I  expect  better 
things  than  this.  It  is  a  pleasing 
recreation,  and  it  softens  the  heart 
and  prepares  it  for  good  impressions. 
Music  is  a  kind  of  language  in 
which  we  express  what  could  not  be 
expressed  by  mere  speaking.  For 
this  reason  God  has  chosen  to  make 
it  a  part  of  his  worship  :  and  this  is 
the  best  use  we  can  make  of  it. 
Begin,  as  soon  as  you  sing  at  all,  to 
sing  the  praises  of  God.  How 
shameful,  how  ungodly  is  the  con- 
duct of  some  persons,  who  willingly 
sing  worldly  songs,  but  who  are 
silent  when  God's  praises  are  sung ! 
Yet  I  know  young  ladies  of  this 
sort.  At  family  worship,  or  in 
church,  they  cannot  raise  a  note* 
you  might  think  they  were  dumb. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  99 

tf  the  world  was  what  it  ought  to 
be,  most  of  our  singing  would  be 
religious.  We  should  be  constantly 
using  our  voices  to  glorify  our  Cre- 
ator, and  to  celebrate  the  love  of  our 
Redeemer.  Our  morning  voice 
would  be  heard,  like  the  birds',  and 
we  should  join  our  evening  song 
with  those  of  the  robin  and  the 
dove.  The  day  is  corning  when  it 
will  be  so;  when  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  shall  cover  the  earth. 

Even  now,  the  very  best  music 
of  the  masters  is  sacred  music. 
And  if  your  young  companions  de- 
spise psalms  and  anthems,  and  pre- 
fer the  airs  of  the  play-house,  it  only 
shows  how  little  they  know  of  the 
music  of  Handel,  Haydn,  and  Bee- 
thoven. Of  these  you  will  learn 
more  hereafter. 


100  LETTERS   TO   A 


LETTER  EIGHTEENTH. 

BROTHERS   AND    SISTERS. 

My  dear  Mary, — Children  are 
among  God's  kindest  gifts.  The 
Bible  always  represents  it  so.  They 
are  olive  branches  around  the  good 
man's  table.  What  sight  can  be 
more  delightful  for  a  father  and 
mother,  as  they  sit  at  their  door  on  a 
summer  evening,  than  to  behold 
their  sons  and  daughters  playing  on 
the  green!  Even  the  passer-by  en- 
joys such  a  scene,  and  stops  in  his 
walks  to  witness  the  game,  and  to 
hear  the  joyous  laugh.  There  are 
brothers  and  sisters,  children  of  the 
same  parents,  hand-in-hand,  cheek- 
by-cheek,  following  the  same  sports, 
and  listening  to  the  same  instruc- 
tions. If  any  persons  in  the  world 
ought  to    ove  one  another,  brothers 


VERY    YOUNG   L\DY.  1J)J 

and  sisters  are  the  persons.  And 
the  sister,  especially,  should  grow 
up,  even  from  childhood,  with  a 
tender  attachment  to  her  brothers. 
Next  to  your  father,  your  elcfer  bro- 
ther is  your  natural  protector.  His 
arm  is  stronger  than  yours.  When 
you  lean  upon  it  you  art,  not  afraid. 
He  feels  more  like  a  man,  when  you 
are  under  his  care.  No  doubt  he 
would  risk  his  life  to  defend  you. 
In  return,  you  ought  to  be  affection- 
ate and  dutiful,  ready  to  gratify  him, 
and  to  yield  your  own  notions  to  his. 
Even  if  he  is  sometimes  cross,  learn 
to  put  up  with  it,  and  it  will  pass 
away.  Always  remember  that  he 
is  older  than  you,  and  respect  him 
accordingly. 

Your  younger  brothers  look  up  to 
you.  Take  care  what  sort  of  an 
example  you  set  them.  They  will 
be  very  apt  to  do  as  you  do.  Be 
always  ready  to  hear  their  little 
wants  and  sorrows;  for  they  will 
9* 


102  LETTERS    TO    A 

come  to  you  with  things  which  they 
would  not  dare  to  say  to  your  pa- 
rents. 

Sisters  have  been  known  to  quar- 
rel witft  one  another ;  to  chide  and 
scold,  and  blame  one  another;  and,  I 
have  been  told,  even  to  pinch  and 
slap  one  another.  Though  I  am 
sure  you  will  never  be  so  wicked 
and  unnatural  as  this,  yet  I  think  it 
my  duty  to  warn  you  against  some 
other  evils  which  may  spring  up, 
even  among  affectionate  girls.  I 
mean  sour  looks,  short  answers, 
peevish  complaints,  sullenness,  teas- 
ing, impatience,  and  the  like.  O,  let 
not  these  clouds  come  over  the  clear 
face  of  youth !  Love,  and  you  will 
be  loved.  Seek  humility  and  charity, 
and  you  will  avoid  many  an  outbreak 
of  passion.  If  you  are  crossed,  or 
even  wronged,  bear  with  it.  That 
is  the  safest  and  the  best  way  ;  it  is 
Christ's  way.  Yield  something  every 
day,  ir  necessary,  to  your  sisters  and 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  103 

Brothers.  They  will  learn  of  you. 
and  catch  your  spirit.  Give  up 
your  own  will  in  matters  of  mere 
pleasure.  You  cannot  be  too  firm 
in  matters  of  duty.  Sweetness  of 
behaviour  will  make  you  beloved, 
and  promote  that  peace  which  is  the 
greatest  ornament  of  a  family. 

There  is  a  great  difference  in  the 
behaviour  of  brothers  and  sisters  to 
one  another;  and  these  differences 
begin  very  early.  In  some  families 
the  brother  and  the  sister  are  almost 
always  together.  You  can  see  in  a 
moment  how  much  they  love  one 
another.  Every  look  and  every 
word  are  full  of  kindness.  In  other 
families  the  children  are  seldom  to- 
gether when  they  can  avoid  it.  Each 
one  likes  the  company  of  other  young 
people  better.  When  they  are  to- 
gether, they  are  constantly  fretting 
and  squabbling.  Children  who  begin 
m  this  way  are  very  likely  to  go  on 
r*&  when   they    grow   larger.      The 


104  LETTERS    TO    A 

way  to  avoid  such  habits  is  to  be 
always  considerate  and  forgiving. 
As  far  as  possible,  never  give  offence 
and  never  take  offence.  Love  your 
brother  or  your  sister  as  yourself. 
Rejoice  when  you  can  do  them  a 
favour.  Be  often  thinking  how  you 
may  give  them  some  unexpected 
pleasure.  As  I  said  before,  there  is 
nothing  more  lovely  than  a  loving 
household.  So  David  thought:  Be- 
hold how  good  and  how  pleasant  it 
is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in 
unit)^ !  It  is  like  the  precious  oint- 
ment upon  the  head,  that  ran  down 
upon  the  beard,  even  Aaron's  beard; 
that  went  down  to  the  skirts  of  his 
garments.  As  the  dew  of  Hermon, 
and  as  the  dew  that  descended  upon 
the  mountains  of  Zion :  for  there 
the  Lord  commanded  the  blessing, 
even  life  for  evermore. 


VERY    YOUVG   LADY.  105 


LETTER  NINETEENTH. 

TEMPER. 

My  tjear  Mary, — If  you  wish 
to  know  a  young  lady's  temper,  you 
must  live  with  her.  Some  people 
look  very  pleasant  abroad,  v/ho  are 
very  ill-tempered  at  home.  It  is 
easy  to  look  smiling,  and  to  speak 
gently  for  a  little  while,  even  if  you 
feel  discontented  or  spiteful ;  but,  to 
seem  kind  and  pleasant  for  a  long 
time  together,  you  must  be  so  in 
reality.  Nobody  can  wear  a  mask 
always.  However  agreeable  and 
polite  you  may  try  to  be,  it  will  be 
all  in  vain,  unless  you  have  a  good 
feeling  within  After  all  your  try- 
ing, some  little  sharpness  or  rudeness 
will  break  out  and  betray  you. 

Think  over  your  young  friends 
and   school-companions.      Some  of 


106  LETTERS   TO    A 

them  are  more  agreeable  than  the 
rest.  Everybody  loves  thern.  They 
have  more  friends  than  the  rest. 
Why  is  this?  Is  it  because  they 
are  richer  ?  No.  Because  they  are 
more  beautiful  ?  O,  no !  for  some 
who  are  great  beauties  are  disliked. 
Then,  is  it  because  they  are  the  most 
intelligent  or  accomplished?  No. 
Why,  then,  does  every  one  love  to 
be  near  them  ?  I  will  tell  you.  It 
is  because  they  are  gentle,  sweet- 
tempered,  and  obliging.  They  think 
more  of  others  than  of  themselves. 
They  are  not  easily  made  angry. 
They  are  not  proud,  nor  selfish,  nor 
sullen,  nor  peevish.  Their  smile  is 
not  put  on ;  it  rises  from  their  in- 
ward kindness :  they  cannot  help 
looking  happy,  because  they  feel 
happy,  and  this  makes  all  around 
them  happy. 

You  see  what  a  blessing  a  good 
temper  is.  Try  to  cultivate  it.  Try 
to   check    every    rising  of   unkind 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY  107 

feeling.  Such  feelings  will  rise  now 
and  then  :  but  crust  them  at  once,  if 
possible.  Indulge  them,  and  they 
will  grow;  resist  them,  and  they 
will  die.  Look  on  every  one  near 
you  as  a  person  whom  you  are  to 
make  as  happy  as  you  can.  Let  it 
be  your  business  to  be  doing  this,  or 
trying  to  do  it,  all  the  day  long. 
You  cannot  get  so  much  pleasure  in 
any  way  as  by  giving  pleasure  to 
others.  If  it  is  only  a  child,  or  a 
servant,  or  a  stranger,  or  a  beggar — 
no  matter;  endeavour  to  do  them 
some  good.  If  you  have  nothing  to 
give,  if  there  is  nothing  you  can  do, 
you  can  at  least  give  them  kind 
words  and  kind  looks.  Nothing 
costs  less ;  but,  in  some  cases,  v 
thing  is  worth  more. 

True  religion  is  the  thing  ro 
sweeten  the  temper.  It  can  turn 
the  lion  into  the  lamb.  Behold  the 
meek  and  loving  Jesus,  and  you  will 
see  the  perfection  of  temper      Be- 


108  LETTERS    TO    A 

lieve  in  him,  and  you  will  be  like 
him.  Charity  or  love  is  the  grace 
wnich  makes  happiness.  If  all  the 
people  in  the  world  loved  one  an- 
other, "with  a  pure  heart,  fervently," 
*yhat  a  happy  world  it  would  be  ! 

When  you  are  tempted  to  fee) 
angry  with  any  one,  ask  yourself  if 
this  temper  is  pleasing  to  God.  Ask 
yourself  if  you  are  not,  after  all,  in 
he  wrong.  "  Let  not  the  sun  gc 
down  upon  your  wrath."  Forgive, 
or  you  will  not  be  forgiven.  Do 
not  let  hard  thoughts  of  any  ons 
remain  in  your  mind.  They  will 
be  like  festering  sores  there.  Get  rid 
of  them  at  once.  Never  allow  your 
self  to  think  you  are  slighted  01 
treated  amiss.  Half  the  time  such 
thoughts  arise  from  foolish  pride  and 
sinful  jealousy.  You  will  not  be 
troubled  so  much  with  these  suspi- 
cions, if  you  follow  the  gospel  rule,  and 
esteem  others  better  than  yourself. 
Some  people  will  tell  vou  that  a 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY. 


109 


good  temper  comes  entirely  from 
nature.  Some  tempers  are  naturally 
more  pleasant  than  others ;  but  I  am 
more  apt  to  think  that  a  good  temper 
comes  from  grace.  Pray  to  God  to 
take  away  all  your  bad  dispositions, 
and  to  give  you  good  ones,  by  his 
Holy  Spirit;  and  ask 
name  of  Jesus  Christ, 
tenderness,  love,  and 
who  went  about  doin^ 
who  died  for  his  enemies,  persecu- 
tors, and  murderers. 


this  in  the 
who  was  all 
compassion ; 
I  good ;   and 


10 


110  LETTERS    TO    A 


LETTER  TWENTIETH. 

BEHAVIOUR    TO    SERVANTS. 

My  dear  Mary, — Children  and 
servants  make  up  a  large  part  of 
many  families.  They  have  to  be 
much  together,  and  the  quiet  of  the 
house  depends  very  much  on  their 
oehaviour  to  one  another.  A  good 
servant  is  the  very  next  thing  to  a 
good  child.  Where  they  have  been 
long  in  a  family,  they  are  often  es- 
teemed and  beloved,  and  should  be 
treated  with  kindness  and  considera- 
tion. You  need  never  be  afraid  nor 
ashamed  to  own  that  you  look  upon 
a  faithful  old  domestic  as  one  of  your 
friends. 

The  comfort  and  usefulness  of  all 
who  do  the  work  of  a  family  are 
connected  with  the  way  in  which 
the    children     behave    themselves 


VERY    YOING   LADY.  Ill 

The  young  ladies  of  a  household 
have  usually  more  to  do  with  the 
domestics  than  their  brothers.  So 
that  if  the  girls  are  not  kind,  the 
servants  must  be  unhappy.  Often, 
very  often,  good  servants  leave  their 
places  on  account  of  one  pettish,  ill- 
natured  child. 

My  first  advice  is,  Never  keep 
company  with  domestics,  except 
when -directed  by  your  parents.  If 
your  parent  sees  that  any  one  of  her 
female  attendants  is  a  fit  companion 
for  you,  she  will  tell  you  so. 

My  second  advice  is,  Always  use 
kind  and  respectful  language  to  the 
servants.  There  is  no  case  in  which 
you  should  do  otherwise.  They  are 
generally  older  than  you,  and  some- 
times wiser  and  better.  Do  not  take 
any  airs  of  superiority.  Surely  you 
will  not  despise  any  of  them  because 
they  are  poor !  Your  Redeemer 
was  poor,  and  "  took  upon  him  the 
form  of  a  servant,"  when  he  was  on 


112  LETTERS    TO    A 

earth.  Above  all,  do  not  use  harsh, 
disrespectful  words  to  those  who  are 
aged. 

My  third  advice  is,  Avoid  all  dif- 
ferences with  servants.  Children 
are  too  apt  to  fall  out  with  those 
who  wait  on  them.  It  is  sometimes 
the  servant's  fault;  but,  even  sup- 
pose you  have  been  treated  amiss  by 
a  domestic,  the  proper  way  is  to 
make  it  known  in  the  gentlest  man- 
ner to  your  mother,  who  will  in- 
stantly set  all  right.  What  can  be 
more  unlovely  than  to  see  a  young 
lady,  who  should  be  all  sweetness 
and  tranquillity,  flying  into  a  passion, 
quarrelling  with  the  maids,  and 
making  the  house  ring  with  the 
tones  of  anger ! 

Never  interrupt  servants  in  their 
work.  Mind  your  own  business,  and 
iet  them  mind  theirs.  This  is  the 
way  to  keep  the  peace  with  all  sorts 
of  people,  all  your  life  long,  but  espe- 
cially with  servants.     Do  not  meddle 


VERY    YC  UNG    LADY.  113 

with  their  employments.  If  you 
find  them  doing  any  little  thing,  by 
no  means  take  it  out  of  their  hands, 
as  if  you  could  do  it  better.  There 
is  a  good  proverb  which  says  :  Fools 
and  children  should  never  see  half-done 
work.  You  may  know,  by  your  own 
feelings,  how  very  unpleasant  it  is 
to  be  helped  when  you  do  not  need 
it.  We  all  like  to  be  let  alone  ;  and 
some  of  the  best  servants  I  ever 
knew,  would  get  a  little  out  of  hu- 
mour from  the  vexatious  whims  of 
little  meddlers.  Let  it  never  be 
said  that  your  mother  lost  such  or 
such  a  domestic,  because  she  could 
not  live  in  the  same  house  with 
Miss  Mary. 

Be  considerate  in  what  you  direct 
servants  to  do.  Their  time  is  pre- 
cious. They  have  feelings  as  well 
as  you.  They  can  be  weary  as  well 
as  you.  They  cannot  do  two  things 
at  once,  or  be  in  two  places  at  the 
same  moment,  any  more  than  you 
10* 


1 14  LETTERS    TO    A 

Think  of  this  when  you  ask  them 
to  do  any  thing  for  you ;  as,  for  ex- 
ample, when  you  send  one  on  an 
errand,  or  when  you  wish  their 
services  late  at  night,  or  while  they 
are  at  their  meals,  or  when  they  are 
indisposed.  Try  to  ask  thetn  with- 
out seeming  to  command.  They 
would  rather  be  requested  than 
ordered ;  and  you  will  always  be 
better  served  in  the  end. 

Lastly,  Do  all  you  can  to  make 
every  one  near  you  wiser  and  better. 
Could  you  not  teach  that  young  girl 
to  read?  Could  you  not  give  her 
some  good  tract  or  little  book  now  and 
then?  Could  you  not  help  her  in 
her  Sunday-school  lesson?  Could 
you  not  talk  with  her  about  the 
Bible?  In  all  these  ways,  and  in 
many  others,  you  may  be  useful  and 
beloved,  long  before  the  days  of 
your  girlhood  are  over. 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  115 


LETTER  TWENTY-FIRST. 

ALMSGIVING. 

My  dear  Mary,— Can  you  begin 
to  do  good  too  soon?  Ortainly  not. 
I  dare  say  your  busy  hands  were 
employed,  long  ago,  to  convey  money 
or  food  to  the  poor.  And  your 
parents  will,  no  doubt,  continue  to 
give  you  trifling  sums  from  time  to 
time,  to  be  bestowed  on  the  needy.  I 
think  this  a  matter  of  vastly  more  im- 
portance than  is  generally  thought. 
Habits  are  formed  very  early,  and 
there  is  no  habit  which  it  is 
better  to  form  at  once,  than  that 
of  doing  good.  Learn  to  relieve 
misery.  Look  at  it,  even  though 
the  sight  is  painful.  Look  at  the 
lame,  the  sick,  the  blind,  the  wan- 
derer, and  the  orphan,  and  be  thank- 
ful   for  your  own   favours.      Sin? 


116  LETTERS    TO    A 

that  precious  little  hymn  of  good 
Dr.  Watts, 

"  Whene'er  I  take  my  walks  abroad, 
How  many  poor  I  see  ! 
"What  shall  I  render  to  my  God, 
For  all  his  gifts  to  me !" 

If  you  do  not  know  it  already,  I  beg 
you  to  get  it  by  heart  at  once. 
Every  word  of  it  is  wTorthy  of  your 
recollection. 

You  sometimes  have  money  given 
to  you  for  your  own.  Would  it  not 
be  a  good  rule  for  life,  to  lay  aside  a 
little  portion  of  all  such  money,  for 
charitable  purposes.  The  Jews  used 
to  give  at  least  a  tenth  to  the  Lord  : 
and  he  that  hath  pity  upon  the  poor, 
lendeth  unto  the  Lord ;  and  that 
which  he  hath  given,  will  He  pay 
him  again.  I  think  this  little  alms- 
portion  of  your  pocket-money  would 
sweeten  all  the  rest.  Suppose  you 
lay  all  out  in  cake,  or  confections,  o» 
picture-books,  or  ornaments ;  these 
are  -soon  gone,  and  do  no  real  good 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  117 

to  anybody.  But  the  sixpence  that 
buys  a  loaf  for  a  poor  woman,  does 
more  good  to  you  than  to  her.  You 
remember  it  with  satisfaction. 

It  will  never  be  hard  to  find  some 
one  to  bless  with  a  charitable  gift. 
You  know  what  our  Lord  said  :  "Ye 
have  the  poor  always  with  you." 
Begin  early  to  find  them  out.  Some 
of  the  most  deserving  and  the  most 
needy  require  to  be  sought  for.  It 
is  not  the  beggars  who  come  to  our 
doors,  that  are  the  most  worthy; 
though  these  are  not  to  be  thrust 
away  without  inquiry. 

One  of  the  best  things  you  can  do 
for  poor  people,  is  to  give  them  work. 
Then  they  earn  what  they  get,  and 
we  always  enjoy  most  what  we  work 
for.  My  dear  Mary,  you  were  not 
placed  in  this  world  to  live  for  your- 
self It  is  a  great  error  to  think  so. 
Never  let  it  go  out  of  your  mind, 
that  your  grand  business  in  life  is  to 
make  as  many  people  happy  as.  you 


118  LETTERS    rlO   A 

can.     It  is  chiefly  for  the  sake  of 
fixing  this  in  youi  mind,  that  I  ad 
vise  you  to  save  some  of  your  money 
for  alms.     It  is  but  little  you  can 
give,   I  know;    but  that  little  will 
constantly  make  you  think  of  your 
fellow-creatures,  and  you  will  grow 
up  in  the  habit  of  doing  them  good 
and  you  will  learn  the  happiness  ot 
living  for  others  rather  than  yourself 
and,  by  grace,  will  become  every  day 
more  and  more  like  Him  who  went 
about  doing  good. 

The  soul  is  worth  more  than  the 
body,  and  it  is  better  to  do  good  to 
men's  souls  than  to  their  bodies. 
You  do  good  to  their  souls  when  you 
help  them  to  become  true  believers 
in  Christ.  There  are  many  millions 
whc  do  not  know  Christ.  What 
can  you  do,  to  help  them  to  this 
precious  knowledge?  You  cannot 
go  to  them,  for  most  of  them  ar« 
thousands  of  miles  off;  but  you  can 
send      A   tew   cents  every   month 


VJUIY    YOUNG    LADY.  119 

from  every  little  girl  in  America, 
would  make  a  great  sum  at  the 
year's  end.  If  this  sum  were  given 
to  send  the  Bible,  and  missionaries, 
and  teachers  to  the  ignorant  and 
wicked  heathen,  or  good  libraries  to 
children  and  youth  in  our  own  coun- 
try, who  have  no  books,  it  would 
probably  lead  many  of  them  to  the 
Knowledge  of  the  blessed  Saviour. 
How  much  happier  it  would  make 
you,  to  think  that  you  were  helping 
to  do  this,  than  to  remember  laying 
out  the  same  money  upon  trifles  to 
eat  or  to  put  on ! 

When  you  grow  older,  I  am  afraid 
you  will  meet  with  foolish  and  un- 
godly people,  who  will  laugh  at  you 
for  giving  to  the  ignorant  and  the 
unconverted ;  but  when  you  listen  to 
them,  think  of  Him  who,  "though 
he  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sake  be- 
came poor,  that  you,  through  his 
poverty,  might  be  rich." 


120  LETTERS    TO    A 


LETTER  TWENTY-SECOND. 

MONEY. 

My  dear  Mary, — It  is  not  mone> , 
but  the  love  of  it,  which  the  BibH 
tells  us  is  the  root  of  all  evil.  Lik<n 
fire  and  water,  money  is  a  good  thin^ 
in  its  place.  Yet  it  is  dreadful 
to  think  of  the  multitudes  who 
abuse  it,  and  ruin  themselves  by  it. 
There  are  many  who  are  as  really 
worshippers  of  gold,  as  any  idolaters 
in  the  East  Indies.  There  are  mil 
lions  of  people  who  are  servants  of 
Mammon.  Riches  is  a  curse  to  great 
numbers ;  for,  certainly,  that  is  a 
curse  which  makes  it  hard  to  be 
saved ;  and  we  know  who  has  said, 
How  hardly  shall  they  that  have 
riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
God !  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  than 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY  121 

for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  God. 

Even  a  very  young  lady,  then, 
ought  to  learn  something  about  this 
thing  which  occasions  such  evils. 
Perhaps  you  say,  I  will  do  without 
money.  No,  this  cannot  be,  unless 
you  go  out  of  the  world.  The  true 
way  is,  to  learn  how  to  use  it. 

Perhaps  you  have  a  little  purse 
of  your  own.  At  any  rate,  you  have 
had  a  little  money,  and  you  expect 
to  have  some  again.  It  is  very  well 
for  children  to  have  small  sums 
given  them,  that  they  may  know 
how  to  use  them ;  and  they  should 
be  required  to  give  an  account  of  the 
way  in  which  they  spend  their 
money.  They  are  too*  ready  to 
fancy  that  because  it  is  their  own, 
they  may  do  what  they  please  with 
it.  They  are  impatient  to  lay  it  out. 
Every  moment  you  will  hear  them 
saying,  What  shall  I  buy  with  this  ? 
They  have  no  idea  of  saving.  In 
11 


122  LETTERS   TO   A 

deed,  a  saving  or  hoarding  child 
would  be  an  unnatural  creature. 

But,  young  as  you  are,  and 
small  as  your  purse  is,  you  must 
give  an  account  of  the  way  you 
empty  it.  Vou  are  forming  habits. 
If  you  are  wasteful  now,  you  will 
probably  be  wasteful  hereafter.  If 
you  lay  out  your  penny  foolishly 
when  you  are  young,  you  will  lay 
out  your  pound  foolishly  when  you 
are  old;  unless,  like  Dr.  Franklin, 
you  learn  wisdom  by  your  losses : 
for,  I  suppose,  you  have  read  his 
famous  story  of  the  Whistle. 

Learn  nowr,  not  to  lay  out  a  penny 
for  what  is  worth  nothing.  Most  of 
the  small  change  which  is  given  to 
children  goes  for  cake,  candy,  and 
the  like.  Now,  I  have  scarcely  ever 
been  in  a  family  where  the  children 
did  not  get  enough  of  that  sort  of 
things  without  the  trouble  of  buy- 
'ng  them. 

Try,  my  dear,  if  you  cannot  be 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  123 

wise  enough,  young  as  you  are,  tc 
lay  out  a  little  money  for  something 
useful.  To  do  so  requires  a  little 
saving.  It  will  do  you  no  harm  to 
let  a  shilling  lie  a  week  or  two  ip 
your  purse,  without  burning  its  wTay 
out.  Try  this.  I  think  you  are  not 
in  danger  of  being  a  miser.  And, 
after  all,  I  mean  that  you  should 
spend  it  for  yourself.  I  only  wish 
you  to  wait  a  little,  and  exercise 
your  judgment  by  buying  what  is 
not  worthless. 

Could  you  not  purchase  for  your- 
self some  pretty,  convenient  article 
of  furniture,  or  something  for  your 
writing-table,  or  your  toilette?  It 
would  be  better  than  to  eat  and 
drink  your  little  fortune  up.  Could 
yjpu  not  think  of  some  pleasant,  use- 
ful book,  which  you  have  long 
wished  to  have?  Is  there  no  pre- 
sent you  would  like  to  make  to  one 
of  your  dear  relations  or  friends,  on 
his  birthday?     Or,  suppose  you  buy 


124  LETTERS    TO    A 

the  materials,  and  make  up  some- 
thing pretty  with  your  own  hands, 
for  that  friend.  All  these  are  ways 
of  spending  money  which  would 
give  far  more  pleasure  than  those 
which  children  commonly  follow. 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that  a 
great  deal  would  be  saved,  if  people 
were  brought  up  from  their  youth  to 
keep  a  regular  account  of  all  that 
they  spend.  Ladies  who  are  house- 
keepers find  the  importance  of  this 
when  it  is  too  late.  Begin  now.  It 
will  be  entertaining  to  you  to  have  a 
book,  and  to  set  down  what  you 
have  paid  out.  It  will  teach  you 
accounts.  It  will  show  you  how 
much  has  gone  foolishly,  and  so  will 
teach  you  to  be  wiser  in  time  to 
come. 

The  duty  of  giving  something  to 
the  poor  and  to  other  good  objects,  is 
very  plain.  Indeed,  my  last  letter 
to  you  was  on  this  subject.  It  is 
mst  as  true  of  you  now,  as  it  will  be 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY. 


125 


when  you  come  to  have  thousands, 
if  you  ever  should,  that  you  are  a 
steward  of  God's  property,  and  that 
you  must  give  account  to  Him. 


IV 


126  LETTERS   TO   A 


LETTER  TWENTY-THIRD. 

VISITS. 

My  dear  Mary, — Did  you  ever 
take  notice  that  some  children  be- 
have themselves  worst  when  they 
are  abroad?  Like  little  eye-ser- 
vants, they  are  dutiful  enough  while 
their  parents  are  looking  on,  but 
very  rude  and  disobedient  when 
they  are  with  other  people.  This 
should  make  you  very  careful  to  be 
as  thoughtful  about  your  conduct  in 
the  absence  of  your  parents  as  in 
their  presence. 

It  will  be  very  long,  I  hope,  before 
your  mother  will  allow  you  to  make 
fashionable  calls,  or  to  go  into  com- 
pany. Much  of  what  is  so  called, 
is  part  of  that  worldly  vanity  which 
true  Christians  ought  not  to  counte- 
nance.    But,  eT  en  if  conducted  in  a 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  127 

religious  manner,  visiting  is  not  the 
thing  for  young  girls.  I  do  not 
mean  that  you  should  not  go  some- 
times to  see  your  young  acquaint- 
ances. Do  so,  by  all  means.  Nei- 
ther do  I  mean  that  you  should  not 
accompany  your  dear  parents  when 
they  think  it  right  to  take  you.  But 
what  I  earnestly  wish  you  may 
avoid  is,  beginning  too  soon  to  dress 
for  gay  visits,  or  coming  out  in 
mixed  company.  Alas  !  how  many 
weak  parents  have  followed  the 
wishes  of  their  inexperienced  chil- 
dren, in  regard  to  this !  And  how 
many  vain  girls  have  been  utterly 
spoiled,  by  being  adorned  like  wo- 
men, and  brought  into  fashionable 
circles  a*  an  age  when  they  ought  to 
have  been  sitting  at  their  samplers, 
or  running  about  in  their  sun-bon 
aets ! 

What  I  have  to  say,  therefore, 
does  not  relate  to  these  follies  of 
fashionable  peonle,  but  to  the  little, 


128  LETTERS    TO    A 

plain,  sociable,  every-day  visits, 
which  friends,  whether  great  or 
small,  all  the  world  over,  are  ac- 
customed to  make  to  one  another. 

When  your  school-hours  are  over, 
you  sometimes  snatch  up  your  bon- 
net, and  run  over  the  way,  or  round 
the  corner,  or  across  the  fields,  to  see 
a  young  acquaintance.  Perhaps 
you  are  invited  to  spend  the  even- 
ing. If  you  have  leave,  you  do  so : 
and  these  are  often  improving  as 
well  as  agreeable  hours.  At  such 
times,  fix  it  in  your  mind  that  your 
behaviour  is  observed  by  many  eyes. 
These  friends  know  your  parents ; 
they  are  looking  to  see  how  their 
daughter  behaves  herself.  A  single 
rude  word,  or  bold  act,  01  neglect  of 
civility,  will  be  charged  against 
those  whom  you  love  best.  The 
faults  of  young  people,  away  from 
home,  arise  very  much  from  heed- 
lessness. They  are  so  animated  and 
excited  by  the  new  scenes  and  good 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  129 

company,  that  they  forget  them- 
serves,  and  become  rude  and  boister- 
ous ;  or  else  they  think  they  are 
slighted,  and  pout  or  grow  sullen. 
I  mention  these  most  disagreeable 
things,  in  the  hope  you  will  shun 
them.  To  do  so,  remember  every 
moment  what  I  have  said  elsewhere, 
that  your  business  is  to  make  all 
around  you  happy.  If  this  is  fixed 
in  your  mind,  you  will  be  truly 
courteous  and  respectful,  and  every 
one  will  love  your  company. 

The  very  best  rules  for  every 
thing,  are  the  Bible-rules.  Be  hum- 
ble, be  meek,  think  less  of  yourself 
than  of  others,  love  your  neighbour, 
and  be  mindful  of  the  presence  of 
God,  observe  these  rules,  and  you 
will  go  aright  in  any  company. 
You  will  then  appear  to  be  only 
what  you  really  are ;  modest  and 
affectionate.  You  will  not  do  things 
merely  to  be  gazed  at.  You  will 
not  take  on  airs,  as  if   you   were 


130  LETTERS   TO    A 

better  than  others.  You  will  not 
make  sport  of  any  one,  nor  look 
down  on  any  thing  because  it  is  odd, 
nor  boast  that  such  and  such  things 
are  so  much  nicer  and  finer  at  youi 
house.  You  will  not  find  fault,  and 
tease,  and  chide.  You  will  not 
grow  sulky,  and  bridle  your  little 
neck,  and  declare  that  you  wTill 
never  visit  there  again.  You  will 
not  selfishly  want  the  first  of  every 
thing  and  the  best  of  every  thing 
for  yourself.  All  these  shameful 
and  sinful  practices  you  will  escape, 
by  simply  following  the  rules  of 
God's  holy  word ;  which  should  be 
your  guide  from  infancy  to  old  age. 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  13' 


LETTER  TWENTY-FOURTH. 

RECEIVING    VISITS. 

My  dear  Mary, — When  I  come 
to  see  you,  I  shall  look  carefully  to 
see  whether  you  observe  my  little 
directions.  It  will  give  me  great 
mortification,  if  you  are  shy  and 
cold;  if  you  run  into  corners,  or 
hide  behind  your  mother's  chair. 
Be  as  modest  and  retiring  as  you 
please,  but  remember  it  is  no  part 
of  modest  reserve  to  be  inhospitable, 
Give  every  one  a  welcome  look.  I 
will  pardon  you  for  blushing  a  little, 
or  for  a  little  fearful  shake  in  your 
voice ;  but,  in  your  father's  house, 
you  must  learn  to  receive  your 
friends  as  if  you  were  glad  to  see 
them. 

If  you  should  chance  to  be  at 
home  when  no  older  member  of  the 


132  BETTERS    TO    A 

family  is  present,  you  may  have  to 
entertain  company  for  a  few  minutes 
or,  indeed,  if  they  have  come  far, 
for  some  hours.  Do  this  as  kindly, 
quietly,  and  modestly  as  you  can; 
these  friends  will  esteem  you  for  it, 
and  forgive  any  little  blunders  you 
may  commit. 

When  visitors  come  in  to  see 
your  mother,  be  quick  in  helping 
them  in  every  thing  they  really 
need ;  but  do  not  bustle  about  un- 
necessarily :  this  is  what  is  called 
being  officious,  and  it  is  very  dis- 
gusting. Let  your  whole  manner 
be  quiet,  simple,  and  respectful. 
Speak  when  you  are  spoken  to.  When 
a  lady  or  a  gentleman  asks  you  a 
question,  do  not  look  down,  simper, 
stammer,  mutter,  bite  your  nails,  nor 
play  any  of  the  tricks  of  bashful 
girls.  Do  not  you  know  that  all 
these  things  only  draw  more  atten 
tion  to  you  ?  If  you  had  answered 
"\t  once,  it  would  all  have  been  over, 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  133 

and  you  would  have  been  forgotten 
the  next  minute ;  but  now,  that  you 
have  reddened,  and  coughed,  and, 
perhaps,  shed  two  or  three  tears, 
everybody  is  looking  at  you,  and  the 
matter  gets  worse  and  worse.  But, 
pray,  do  not  run  to  the  other  extreme, 
and  join  in  the  conversation  when 
you  are  not  desired  to  do  so. 

Sometimes  your  own  young  friends 
will  come  to  see  you ;  it  may  be  to 
drink  tea,  or  even  to  spend  a  few 
days.  O,  how  delightful  this  is  to 
young  persons  who  are  well-bred, 
and  love  one  another !  Well  do  I 
remember  days  and  weeks  of  this 
kind,  which  I  spent,  almost  thirty 
years  ago,  with  young  friends  in  the 
country.  Some  of  them  are  grow- 
ing gray,  like  myself,  and  others  are 
no  more  in  this  world.  If  there  is 
any  time  when  you  ought  to  be  par- 
ticularly obliging,  it  is  when  your 
friends  come  to  see  you.  Now  is 
the  time  to  make  them  happy.  Do. 
12 


134  LETTERS    TO    A 

• 

all  in  your  power  to  make  them  feel 
at  home.  Anticipate  their  wants. 
Bear  with  their  disagreeable  ways. 
If  any  of  them  are  rude  and  diso- 
bliging, do  not  imitate  them  in  this, 
but  pity  them,  and  set  them  right. 
Never  utter  a  single  word  to  give 
them  a  moment's  pain,  unless  it  is 
something  which  you  cannot,  in 
conscience,  avoid  saying.  Show 
them  all  that  you  think  will  please 
them,  but  do  this  without  ostenta- 
tion. Bear  in  mind  that  you  are  to 
please  them,  and  not  they  to  please 
you.  They  are  your  guests ;  there- 
fore, let  them  have  the  choice  of 
amusements,  and  do  not  urge  them 
to  do  what  they  do  not  wish. 

If  you  can  do  something  to  make 
these  visits  profitable  as  well  as  plea- 
sant, you  will  be  all  the  happier  for 
t.  Such  visits  will  leave  their 
sweetness  in  your  memory,  long 
after  they  have  passed  by.  The 
instructive    book   which    you    and 


VERY    YOUNG    LADF.  135 

your  friends  r«-.ad  together  under  the 
shady  maple,  will  be  remembered 
by  you  many,  many  years  hence. 

The  best  way  to  avoid  unpleasant 
visitors,  is  to  make  it  a  rule  to  in- 
'vite  no  one  to  your  house,  unless 
with  your  parents'  leave.  At  your 
age,  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  judge 
who  are  good  and  who  are  bad  com- 
panions, without  some  help  from 
your  father  and  mother.  And  when 
they  have  .decided  this  point,  never 
say  another  word.  Let  their  will 
be  your  law.  They  know  a  hun- 
dred-fold more  about  these  things 
than  you ;  and  they  are  as  desirous 
as  you  can  be,  that  all  your  visits 
?hould  give  you  pleasure. 


136  LETTERS   TO    A 

LETTER  TWENTY-FIFTH, 

LETTER-WRITING. 

My  dear  Mary, — Though  I  have 
written  you  twenty-four  letters,  yet 
I  have  not  had  a  single  one  in  reply. 
'  Very  well,"  I  seem  to  hear  you  say; 
"  this  is  just  as  it  should  be :  it  is  time 
enough  for  me  to  begin  to  be  a  letter- 
writer."  That  will  depend,  Miss 
Mary,  very  much  on  the  kind  of 
letters  you  write.  I  know  that  some 
young  girls  make  themselves  very 
ridiculous  by  a  sort  of  rage  for  cor- 
responding with  their  acquaintances. 
But  nothing  is  more  proper  than  for 
a  young  lady,  even  of  the  most  ten- 
der years,  to  write  a  little  letter  to 
her  mother,  her  brother,  or  her 
teacher,  or  to  such  an  elderly  friend 
as  myself,  for  example.  Such  epis- 
tles give  great  pleasure.  When  your 
brother  goes  to   college,   there   are 


VERY    YOUNG    L&.DY.  i37 

few  things  which  he  will  value  more 
than  a  letter  from  his  sister  Mary. 

What  I  wish  you  to  consider  is, 
that  whatever  is  worth  doing  at  all, 
is  worth  doing  well.  There  is  a 
right  and  a  wrong,  even  in  letter 
writing;  and,  if  you  wish  to  write 
well  when  you  are  grown  up,  begin 
to  write  well  now. 

Be  sure  that  you  have  something 
to  say.  It  is  poor  work  to  seat  your- 
self at  your  desk,  and  bite  your  nails, 
and  dip  your  pen  in  the  ink  fifty  times, 
before  you  can  come  at  a  thought. 
Young  people  mistake,  also,,  as  to 
what  should  be  put  in  a  letter.  You 
need  not  try  to  write  fine  sentences 
and  big  words.  If  you  try  to  do  so, 
you  will  learn  to  write  affectedly, 
and  the  habit  may  stick  by  you  all 
your  life.  Think  of  what  you  would 
say  to  your  brother,  if  he  were  sit- 
ting by  you,  and  holding  your  hand. 
That  is  just  the  thing  he  will  like  to 
read.  Is  it  a  pleasant  little  piece  of 
12* 


138  LETTERS    TO    A. 

news  ? — Put  it  down ;  it  is  the  very 
thing.  Is  it  a  kind  wish  that  he 
were  by  you  ? — DowTn  with  it ;  it  will 
oe  better  still.  Is  it  some  little  pro- 
ject you  have,  of  surprising  your 
dear  parents  with  a  Christmas  pre- 
sent?— Write  it  down.  Writing  a  let- 
ter is  only  talking  with  a  pen.  Be 
simple,  natural,  unaffected,  and  affec- 
tionate, and  your  letter  will  be  sure 
to  please.  I  know  of  nothing  which 
injures  a  letter  so  much  as  effort. 
By  this  I  mean,  trying  to  do  bettei 
than  you  can.  The  pleasantest  let- 
ters I  ever  received,  were  from  la- 
dies; and  the  best  of  these  were 
those  which  seemed  to  trickle  out 
of  the  pen,  as  if  the  writer  neve) 
thought  wrhat  was  to  come  next 
Remember  what  I  say,  Effort  spoils 
letter-writing. 

I  do  not  mean  that  you  should  be 
careless  in  writing.  By  no  means. 
Be  careless  in  nothing.  All  your 
life,  make  it  a  rule  to  do  every  thing 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  139 

as  well  as  you  can.  Take  a  fair 
sheet  of  purely  white  paper.  Be 
sure  you  have  a  perfectly  good  pen, 
md  the  very  blackest  ink.  Get 
your  mother  to  show  you  where  to 
begin,  where  the  date  is  to  be,  and 
now  far  from  the  top  you  should 
write  the  little  opening  salutation. 
Leave  a  sufficient  blank  margin. 
Take  pains  to  spell  every  word  right, 
and  to  place  your  commas  and  other 
stops  exactly ;  to  dot  every  i,  and  cross 
every  t.  Learn  to  close  and  sign  your 
name  in  a  becoming  way.  Do  not 
delay  to  find  out  the  neatest  and  most 
elegant  mode  of  folding  and  sealing 
your  letter,  and  direct  it  on  the  out- 
ride in  a  fair,  legible  hand.  Do  every 
Dart  of  this  with  your  own  hands. 

It  is  good  to  practise  what  we 
learn ;  so,  pray,  begin  at  once ;  get 
your  pen  and  paper,  write  your 
letter,  fold,  and  seal  it,  and  then 
write  on  the  back  the  name  of  your 
friend  and  well-wisher,       


!40  LETTERS    TO   a 


LETTER  TWENTY-SIXTH. 

THE    FORMATION    OF   HABITS. 

My  dear  Mary, — What  a  serious 
thing  it  is  to  consider,  that  you  are 
now  forming  habits  for  life  !  Ought 
you  not  to  take  care  to  form  none 
but  good  ones  ? 

Perhaps  you  only  half-believe  me 
When  you  hear  older  people  say, 
that  the  habits  the)r  formed  when 
they  were  young  have  never  left 
them,  perhaps  you  say  within  your- 
self, "  But  it  shall  not  be  so  with  me; 
for,  even  if  I  do  fall  into  some  bad 
ways,  I  will  take  good  care  to  get 
out  of  them  when  I  grow  older." 
My  dear  child,  this  is  just  the  snare 
which  Satan  is  always  laying  for  the 
young.  There  is  no  safety  but  in 
beginning  aright.  If  you  wish  a 
grape-vine  to  grow  in  a  certain  direc- 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  14J 

tion,  you  bend  it  in  that  direction 
while  it  is  young.  If  you  wish  to 
have  a  green  hedge  in  your  garden, 
you  set  it  as  you  would  have  it  to 
grow.  If  you  wish  to  have  apricots, 
you  never  think  of  planting  a  plum 
tree,  in  the  hope  of  exchanging  it 
after  a  year  or  two.  If  you  wish  to 
have  health  when  you  are  a  woman, 
you  must  try  to  be  a  healthy  child. 
If  you  wish  to  have  a  good  memory 
when  you  are  grown,  you  must 
cultivate  your  memory  now.  And, 
if  you  wish  to  be  every  thing  that  is 
good  and  lovely  hereafter,  you  must 
begin  to  be  such  at  present. 

When  I  speak  of  evil  habits,  I  do 
not  mean  habits  of  vice  or  open 
transgression.  I  trust  Divine  Grace, 
given  in  answer  to  the  prayers  of 
your  parents,  will  ever  keep  you  from 
these.  But  I  mean  those  habits  in 
common  life  which  are  formed  by 
repeated  practice.  For  example :  1 
once  wrote  you  a  letter  about  the 


142  LETTERS   TO    A 

habit  of  early  rising.  I  might  write 
to  you  about  the  habit  of  punctuality, 
or  frugality,  or  civility,  or  diligence ; 
they  are  good  habits;  they  should 
be  cultivated.  The  sooner  you  be- 
gin, and  the  more  you  practise  them> 
the  stronger  they  will  become,  till, 
at  length,  no  one  will  think  of  you, 
without  thinking  of  these  habits. 
Habit,  says  the  proverb,  is  a  second 
nature.  Then  I  might  say  much 
about  the  habit  of  procrastination, 
or  putting  things  off  till  to-morrow ; 
the  habit  of  slovenliness ;  of  loqua- 
city, or  talkativeness ;  of  levity ;  or 
of  impudence.  These  are  evil  ha- 
bits, which  should  not  be  allowed 
for  a  moment. 

It  is  wonderful  how  soon  an  evil 
habit  is  formed,  and  how  hard  it  is 
to  get  rid  of  it.  We  see  it,  even  in 
little  things ;  in  very  little  things. 
There  is  a  young  lady,  whose  name 
I  will  not  mention,  lest  I  wound  her 
feelings,  who  has  a  habit  or  trick  of 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  J  43 

biting  her  nails.  It  is  a  disgusting 
practice,  which  ought  to  make  her 
blush,  whenever  she  is  detected  in 
it.  Yet  it  has  become  so  strong, 
that,  I  dare  say,  she  will  go  on  gnaw- 
ing her  finger-nails  to  the  quick,  for 
years  to  come.  Another  little  friend 
of  mine  has  a  habit  of  cracking  the 
ioints  of  her  fingers.  Though  her 
father,  mother,  and  brothers  have 
told  her  how  foolish  and  how  ill-bred 
it  is,  she  has  done  it  so  long,  that 
she  declares  it  is  impossible  for  her 
to  desist.  You  see  how  hard  it  is 
to  break  off  an  evil  habit.  Beware 
how  you  contract  any  such.  If  you 
wish  to  keep  weeds  out  of  your 
flower-bed,  you  pull  them  up  when 
they  are  young,  as  soon  as  you  can 
seize  them.  Do  the  same  with  ill 
habits.  Make  war  upon  them  the 
moment  you  see  them.  Crush 
them,  as  you  would  the  eggs  of  a 
viper 

Education    is  intended    to  form 


144  LETTERS    TO    A. 

^ood  habits,  and  destroy  bad  ones 
You  know  the  golden  lines : 

"  'Tis  education  forms  the  youthful  mind^ 
Just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree's  inclined. 

Act  upon  it.  Every  day,  every  hour, 
you  are  doing  something  to  form  a 
habit.  How  important,  then,  is  this 
spring-time  of  your  life,  and  how 
careful  should  you  be  to  use  it,  so 
that  vou  may  not  lament  it  hereafter ! 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  145 


LETTER  TWENTY-SEVENTH. 

AIR   AND    EXERCISE. 

My  dear  Mary, — When  Doctoi 
Smith  goes  to  your  house,  you  are 
ready  to  wonder  why  he  talks  so 
much  to  your  mother  about  air  and 
exercise.  The  doctor  is  wise,  and 
he  is  kind.  He  knows  what  is  good 
for  young  people,  and  what  evils 
arise  from  keeping  too  much  within 
doors.  He  has  had  hundreds  of 
patients  whose  diseases  have  arisen 
from  this  very  cause.  The  habit  of 
taking  abundant  exercise  in  the 
open  air  is  one  which  you  must  not 
fail  to  form. 

Very  little  children  need  no  direc- 
tions on  this  subject.  They  are 
taking  exercise  all  day  long,  running, 
skipping  and  leaping.  But  when 
girls  are  growing  up  to  be  young 
13 


146  LETTERS    TO    A 

ladies,  they  are  apt  to  change  their 
habits.  They  sit  for  hours  moping 
over  a  book,  or  a  piece  of  work. 
They  dislike  to  move.  Walking 
makes  them  weary.  They  grow 
pale,  lose  their  appetite,  get  a  stoop 
in  the  shoulders,  and  look  peevish 
and  miserable.  The  indolence  and 
the  gloom  increase  upon  them,  till, 
at  last,  unless  they  take  warning  in 
time,  they  go  off  in  a  consumption, 
or  some  other  wasting  disease. 

There  are  a  hundred  different 
ways  of  taking  exercise,  and  some  of 
these  you  will  certainly  find  pleasant. 
You  may  walk;  you  may  ride  ;  you 
may  take  an  airing  in  a  carriage  or  a 
boat;  you  may  swing;  you  may  skip 
the  rope;  you  may  trundle  a  hoop  over 
the  garden-walks ;  you  may  work 
in  the  flower-beds ;  you  may  play 
battledore.  I  have  no  doubt  you 
could  teach  me,  on  this  point,  more 
than  I  can  teach  you.  But,  pray, 
Miss  Mary,  dc    you   practise  what 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  147 

ycu  know?  Come,  now,  answei 
me  a  few  questions.  How  long  is  it 
since  you  walked  four  miles  in  a 
day  ?  How  many  long  walks  do 
you  take  in  a  week?  How  far  can 
you  walk  at  a  good  pace  without 
weariness?  Do  you  make  it  a  point 
of  sitting  down  to  no  meal  without 
having  gained  a  relish  for  it  by  exer- 
cise ?  Are  your  cheeks  red  ?  iVre 
your  arms  firm  ?  These  are  ques- 
tions which  you  must  be  able  to 
answer  satisfactorily. 

It  is  said  that  the  ladies  of  Eng- 
land are  more  healthy  than  those  of 
America,  and  that  they  take  more 
exercise.  I .  can  testify,  that  of  all 
my  acquaintances,  the  most  health- 
ful, blooming  and  cheerful  are  those 
who  are  most  active  out  of  doors. 

The  best  exercise  is  that  which  is 
taken  in  the  open  air.  There  is 
every  thing  to  invite  you  out.  If 
you  are  in  town,  there  are  a  thousand 
interesting  sights  and  engagements. 


148  LETTERS    TO    A 

[f  you  are  in  the  country,  you  can 
scarce]  v  open  your  eyes  without 
finding  what  is  worth  looking  after. 
Go  out  into  the  fields  and  woods. 
Strike  out  new  paths.  Learn  the 
names  and  characters  of  all  the 
forest  trees.  Make  collections  of 
plants  and  flowers.  If  you  have  a 
gentle  horse  and  good  attendants, 
ride  about  before  breakfast,  and  you 
will  soon  find  your  advantage  in  it. 

In  winter,  or  in  rainy  weather,  set 
your  wits  to  work  to  invent  agreeable 
exercises.  Pace  up  and  down  the 
long  piazza  or  gallery  ;  run  up  and 
down  stairs :  learn  how  a  broom 
feels  in  one's  hand :  polish  the 
furniture:  do  any  thing  rather  than 
loll  on  a  sofa  or  lounge  in  a  rocking- 
chair. 

If  you  lose  your  health,  you  will 
probably  lose  your  spirits.  If  you 
lose  your  spirits,  yon  will  become  a 
st  urce  of  anxiety  to  all  your  affec- 
tionate friends;    and  will  be  worth 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  149 

very  little  to  those  you  wish  to 
gratify  and  assist.  There  is  *no 
earthly  talent  for  which  we  are  more 
accountable  than  our  health. 

I  have  long  been  convinced  that  a 
habit  of  bodily  sloth  is  a  principal 
cause  of  ill  health.  Fight  against 
this  habit.  Never  be  afraid  to  move 
about.  Be  quick,  sprightly,  and 
prompt  in  your  motions.  If  youi 
thimble  is  left  up  two  pair  of  stairs, 
go  for  it  instantly.  Do  not  linger, 
and  say,  "I  will  wait  a  little," — go 
at  once.  Form  this  habit  in  every 
thing.  And,  when  the  clock  strikes 
the  hour  for  a  walk,  close  your  book, 
put  up  your  needle,  get  your  bonnet 
and  shawl,  and  away  to  healthful 
motion. 


13' 


150  LETTERS   TO   A 


LETTER  TWENTY-EIGHTH. 

CONVERSATION. 

My  dear  Mary, — When  I  was 
a  child,  I  used  to  be  told  that,  as  I 
had  two  ears,  but  only  one  tongue,  I 
ought  to  hear  much  and  speak  little. 
Afterwards,  my  Latin  lessons  used 
to  say,  "  He  is  a  wise  man  whose 
words  are  few."  Then  I  read  the 
words  of  Solomon;  "In  the  multi- 
tude of  words  there  wanteth  not 
sin ;  but  he  that  restraineth  his  lips 
is  wise."  "  He  that  keepeth  his 
mouth,  keepeth  his  life ;  but  he  that 
openeth  wide  his  lips,  shall  have 
destruction."  Also  the  words  of 
the  apostle  James :  "Let  every 
man  be  swift  to  hear,  slow  to 
speak;"  and  again,  "If  any  man 
offend  not  in  word,  the  same  is  a 
perfect  man,  arid  able  also  to  bridle 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  151 

the  whole  body."     All  this  taught 
me,  that  it  is  a  dangerous  thing  to 
let  the  tongue  run  without  govern 
ment.     I  wish  I  had  practised  more 
what  I  learned. 

The  world  cannot  go  on  without 
some  talking,  and  speech  is  one  of 
the  most  blessed  gifts  of  God.  But 
there  is  more  evil  spoken  than  good, 
and,  if  we  get  the  habit  of  foolish 
talking  when  we  are  young,  it  is 
likely  we  shall  talk  foolishly  all  our 
days. 

Childhood  and  youth  are  the  sea- 
son for  listening  and  learning.  The 
innocent  prattle  of  a  child  is  agree- 
able to  every  kind  heart,  if  it  is  not 
carried  too  far ;  but  it  must  be  in  the 
right  time  and  place.  You  know 
how  much  some  little  girls  offend 
by  perpetual  talking  and  giggling, 
and,  I  hope,  you  are  determined  to 
avoid  it.  Your  parents  and  teachers 
will  tell  .you  when  you  talk  too 
much,  or  too  loud,  or  at  improper 


152  LETTERS    TO    A 

times.  Yield  to  them  instantly,  for 
they  are  wiser  than  you.  You  will 
often  think  you  are  talking  very  agree- 
ably, when  it  is  quite  the  reverse ; 
and  you  should  be  thankful  for 
being  told  so. 

When  older  persons  are  convers- 
ing, never  put  in  a  word  unless  it  is 
absolutely  necessary.  It  is  so,  when 
you  are  spoken  too.  Always  look 
the  person  in  the  face  to  whom  you 
are  speaking ;  not  with  boldness, 
but  firmly  and  modestly.  Do  not 
hang  your  head,  or  turn  away  your 
person,  as  if  you  had  been  detected 
in  a  fault.  When  you  are  with  any 
of  your  friends  or  relations,  talk  as 
much  as  you  see  is  pleasing  to  them. 

Never  interrupt  another  who  is 
speaking.  Begin  now,  and  practise 
on  this  rule,  even  with  your  young 
companions.  If  any  one  interrupts 
you,  be  silent  at  once,  and  begin 
again,  if  necessary,  when  no  one  is 
talking.     Two  or  three  little  ladies 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  153 

together,  sometimes  make  as  much 
noise  as  a  dozen  grown  persons.  It 
is  very  disagreeable,  when  a  young 
lady  breaks  out  into  boisterous 
laughter,  or  giggles  foolishly  at 
trifles,  or  at  some  thought  in  her 
own  head.  Moderate  laughter  is 
innocent  and  healthful,  but  you 
should  leave  what  is  called  the 
"horse-laugh"  for  sailors  and  tip- 
plers. 

When  I  advise  you  not  to  be  too 
fond  of  talking,  you  must  not  sup- 
pose that  I  recommend  a  sullen 
silence.  This  is  even  worse  than 
loquacity,  or  talkativeness.  But  be 
sure  you  have  something  to  say,  and 
"think  twice  before  you  speak  once." 
Neither  do  I  wish  you  to  be  so  bash- 
ful as  not  to  answer  when  you  are 
spoken  to.  This  is  foolish  and  con- 
temptible. One  may  be  self-pos- 
sessed and  distinct  in  talking,  and 
yet  be  ttuly  modest.  This  embar 
rassment    and    hesitation,    and    all 


154  LETTERS    TO    A 

these  tricks  of  ill-bred  misses,  arise 
from  a  silly  little  pride. 

There  is  nothing  more  instructive 
than  good  conversation.  It  teaches 
ns  more  than  books.  But,  then,  yon 
must  talk  with  those  who  can  teach 
you  something.  Solomon  says,  "He 
that  walketh  with  wise  men  shall  be 
wise."  Take  heed  with  whom  you 
talk.  It  is  a  good  sign  for  a  child 
to  love  the  conversation  of  her  pa- 
rents. They  love  you  best,  and  are 
most  desirous  to  do  you  good.  They 
know  you  best,  and  can  say  exactly 
what  you  need  to  hear. 

Be  careful  not  to  repeat  in  one 
company  what  you  hear  in  another. 
Those  who  dc  so,  get  the  ugly  name 
of  tattlers.  Especially,  never  re- 
peat what  you  have  said  at  home  or 
in  school.  There  are  women  whose 
greatest  entertainment  and  business 
it  is,  to  go  from  house  to  house,  day 
after  day,  hearing  news,  and  telling 
it  again.     Beware  of  having  an  itch- 


VERY   YOUNG    LADY 


155 


mg  ear  to  learn  news,  and  an  itching 
tongue  to  retail  it.  Beware  of  gos- 
sipping  and  scandal. 

And,  remember,  "  that  every  idle 
word  that  men  shall  speak,  they 
shall  give  account  thereof  in  the  day 
of  judgment." 


i&$  LETTERS    TO    A 


LETTER  TWENTY-NINTH 

TRUTH. 

My  dear  Mary, — The  word  hm 
is  a  dreadful  word,  and  is  considered 
one  of  the  greatest  reproaches.  But 
the  sin  itself  is  worse  than  its  name-, 
and  you  know  who  hath  said  that 
"  all  liars  shall  have  their  part  in 
the  lake  which  burneth  with  fire 
and  brimstone,  which  is  the  second 
death." 

I  have  sometimes  thought  that 
great  evil  arises  from  giving  trifling 
names  to  heavy  offences.  If  we 
give  a  little  name  to  a  great  sin,  we 
may  learn  to  think  it  a  little  sin. 
Thus,  drunkenness  has  many  funny 
names,  which  serve  to  make  people 
familiar  with  it,  and  so  conceal  its 
oaseness.  Lying,  also,  is  called 
story -telling ;  a  lie  is  called  a  story, 


VERY    YOUNG    LA^Y.  157 

or  a  fib,  or  a  flam.     But  all  the  time 
the  lie  is  nothing  but  a  lie,  hateful 
to  God,  and  injurious  to  our  fellow 
creatures. 

It  is  my  hope,  dear  Mary,  that 
you  will  grow  up  without  having 
ever  told  a  wilful  falsehood.  But, 
the  more  you  hate  it,  the  more  you 
will  shun  it. 

Some  persons  are  famous  for  ly- 
ing. Scarcely  any  thing  is  believed 
because  of  their  saying  it.  They 
have  a  habit  of  falsehood.  Do  you 
wish  to  know  how  they  acquired 
this  habit  ?  By  neglecting  to  speak 
the  simple  truth  when  they  were 
young.  A  lying  child  generally  be- 
comes a  lying  man  or  woman. 

The  evil  begins  in  what  we  think 
very  little  offences,  if  they  are 
offences  at  all.  By  practising  ex- 
aggeration, one  learns  to  practise  false- 
hood. Exaggeration  means  talking 
largely ;  using  great  words  for  little 
things,  and  making  a  thing  seem 
14 


158  LETTERS    TO    A 

larger,  or  worse  than  it  really   is. 
Thus,  if  a  voung  lady  feels  weary, 
she  declares  that  she  is  tired  to  death. 
Or,  if  she  tells  of  something  very 
amusing,  she  says  she  almost  died  of 
laughing.     A  warm  day  is  the  "  hot- 
test day  she  ever  felt  in  her  life." 
A  plain  woman   is   said  to  be  the 
most  horrid  ugly  creature  she  ever 
laid  her  eyes  on.     All  this  is  very 
common,  and  seems  very  harmless ; 
but  it  is  against  the  truth.     These 
expressions    arise     from     a    lively 
imagination,    and    strong    feelings ; 
but  falsehood  arises  from  the  same. 
And,  therefore,  we  should  take  care 
not   to   let  our   imagination   or  our 
feelings  run  away  with  us. 

Whenever  you  undertake  to  give 
an  account  of  any  thing,  be  thought- 
ful Take  care  to  state  every  par- 
ticular precisely  as  it  is.  Say  no 
more  than  you  know.  Avoid  all 
very  large  and  very  strong  expres- 
sions.    I  once  heard  a  young  lady 


VERY   YOUNG    LADY.  159 

say  there  were  about  two  thousand 
birds  on  a  certain  tree ;  I  suppose 
there  might  have  been  fifty.  She  did 
not  think  she  was  speaking  an  un- 
truth, but  she  showed  that  sort  ot 
carelessness  which  leads  to  exag 
geration. 

A  character  for  truth  is  an  excel 
lent  thing.  It  is  soon  found  out 
whether  a  young  person  is  conscien- 
tious or  not,  in  this  particular.  You 
perceive  this  in  the  case  of  servants; 
for  your  parents  will  at  once  dismiss 
a  domestic  who  is  given  to  falsehood. 
Such  domestics  are  a  curse  to  a 
household.  They  often  mislead  the 
children  of  the  family,  and  tempt 
them  to  speak  untruths.  A  habit 
of  making  many  excuses,  leads  to 
falsehood.  Confess  what  you  have 
done  amiss  instantly,  and  fully,  and 
without  waiting  to  be  charged  with 
it.  You  will  fare  all  the  better  for 
it,  even  in  this  world. 

Humility  and  modesty  nelp  us  to 


160  LETTERS    TO    A 

avoid  falsehood.  Thousands  of  the 
lies  which  are  told  every  day,  are 
ies  of  vanity.  A  person  wishes  for 
admiration :  so  he  says  something 
that  is  not  quite  true,  in  order  to  be 
applauded.  Miss  Bell  is  fond  of 
saying  how  rich  her  father  is.  She 
tells  her  school-mates  of  his  ♦fine 
carriages ;  when,  really,  the  good 
gentleman  has  but  one.  She  tells 
of  her  wealthy  uncle  in  England ; 
she  has  no  uncle  in  the  world.  Miss 
Frances  wishes  people  to  think  that 
she  is  a  genius :  so  she  declares 
she  has  not  looked  at  that  lesson, 
though  she  knows  she  has  studied  it 
for  half  an  hour.  But  both  Miss 
Bell  and  Miss  Frances  will  be  de- 
fected in  a  very  short  time. 

The  best  way  to  avoid  this  dread- 

ul  evil,  is  to  remember  the  presence 

uf    God   at  all  times.      Thou    God 

seest  me.     This  will  keep  you  from 

foob'.sh  and  false  words. 


VERY   YOUNG   L  U)Y.  161 


LETTER   THIRTIETH. 

THE    SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

My  dear  Mary, — It  is  now  more 
than  thirty  years  since  I  went  to  a 
little  school,  kept  by  an  excellent  old 
lady.  In  those  days  we  used  to  call 
it  a  "  madam's  school,"  and  in  Eng- 
land it  would  now  be  called  a  "  dame- 
school."  Our  good  school-mistress 
lived  to  a  great  age,  and  died  only- 
last  year,  in  Easton,  on  the  Dela- 
ware. Well  do  I  remember  the 
childish  sports  and  childish  fears  of 
those  days. 

There  were  then  no  Sunday- 
schools  in  America.  Shortly  after, 
they  were  introduced  into  Phila- 
delphia, and  elderly  persons  will 
tell  you  how  much  interest  was 
taken  in  them  by  good  old  Father 
Eastburn,  and  other  servants  of 
14* 


162  LETTERS   TO   A 

Christ.  The  case  is  very  different 
now.  These  religious  mercies  have 
spread  themselves,  not  only  over 
Philadelphia  and  America,  but,  I 
might  almost  say,  over  the  Christian 
world. 

I  have  often  heard  parents  say, 
that  their  children  learned  more  in 
a  few  hours  at  the  Sunday-school, 
than  they  did  all  the  week  besides. 
It  is  not  always  the  case,  indeed, 
but  there  are  some  reasons  why  it 
may  often  be  so. 

In  the  Sunday-school  the  teacher 
bears  no  rod.  The  little  folks  are 
led  by  cords  of  love.  If  the  teacher 
does  his  duty,  he  gains  the  affection 
of  his  class ;  because  they  see  that 
he  longs  for  their  improvement; 
they  hear  his  pleasant  words,  and 
are  soothed  by  his  benevolent  smile. 
He  explains  to  them  what  they  have 
been  studying  through  the  week, 
and  gives  encouragement  and  com- 
mendation  to  such  as  are  diligent 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  163 

All  this  keeps  up  the  attention  and 
engages  the  heart. 

Then  it  is  the  Lord's-day  on 
which  the  school  is  taught ;  and  it 
often  meets  in  the  place  of  worship, 
or  near  it.  All  are  clean  and  in 
their  best  clothes ;  all  are  enjoying 
the  sweet  influences  of  the  Sabbath. 
Besides,  they  have  had  something 
to  do  with  their  lessons  for  six  days 
before ;  and,  if  they  are  diligent,  the 
scholars  are  almost  prepared  when 
they  enter  the  school-room. 

Again,  the  Sunday-school  lessons 
are  out  of  the  Bible ;  the  best  of 
books,  and  the  most  interesting  of 
books.  There  are  no  histories  so 
delightful  as  those  of  the  Scripture ; 
and  a  few  years  at  the  Sunday- 
school  will  take  you  over  them  all. 
What  can  be  more  awakening  o? 
instructive  to  a  company  of  sensible, 
inquisitive  children,  than  to  be  con- 
stantly becoming  acquainted  with 
A    anam,  and  Joseph,  and  Samuel, 


164  LETTERS   TO    A 

and  David,  and  Daniel;  or,  better 
still,  with  our  adorable  Redeemer, 
and  his  twelve  apostles?  No  wonder 
they  learn  fast,  when  all  they  have 
to  learn  is  better  than  the  best  story- 
book in  the  world. 

The  Sunday-school  has  a  library., 
too.  If  you  are  dutiful  and  atten- 
tive, you  will  carry  home  one  of  the 
many  books  which  have  been  made 
on  purpose  for  Sunday-schools.  This 
does  not  often  take  place  in  common 
schools ;  but  every  Sunday-school 
library  is  furnished  with  books  for 
every  age  and  character.  This  is  a 
great  blessing  to  many  a  poor  child, 
and  to  many  a  parent  also.  To  buy 
the  same  number  of  books  for  your- 
self, would  take,  perhaps,  a  hundred 
lollars.  Each  of  these  you  can  take 
and  read,  just  as  if  you  had  bought 
them  with  your  own  money.  But 
how  could  you  get  these,  if  there 
were  no  Sunday-schools ? 

Common  schools  are  of  the  greats 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  165 

est  advantage.     We  cannot  do  with- 
out them.     We  should  honour  them 
and  bless  God  for  them.     But  toe 
many  of  our  common  schools  take 
no  care  of  the  principal  thing — the 
salvation  of  the  soul.      Pious  teach- 
ers, like  those  whom  I  knew  in  my 
childhood,  used  always  to  pray  with 
their  scholars,  and  make  them  say 
religious    lessons.      But    there   are 
many  schools,  where,  alas  !  the  book 
of  God  is  never  read.     You  Know 
how  different  it  is  in  the  Sunday 
school.     There,  the  salvation  of  the 
soul  is  the  great  object :  it  is  for  this 
that  the  school  was  set  up.     This 
gives  a  serious  air  to  every  child  that 
thinks  about    it;    and    the    divine 
truth  which  is  learned,  and  explain- 
ed,   and    talked    about;     and     the 
prayers,  and  the  exhortations,  and  the 
sweet  hymns,  make  all  the  attentive 
scholars  feel  very  peaceful,  and  very 
much  in  earnest. 

Remember  th  >se  things,  my  dear 


166  LETTERS    TO    A 

child,  when  the  Lord's-day  morning 
comes.  Have  your  lessons  perfectly 
learned,  early  in  the  week.  Go 
early  to  the  school ;  and,  while  you 
are  there,  be  solemn,  still,  and  mind- 
ful of  your  duty.  Never  forget  that 
every  lesson  and  every  word  is  in 
tended  to  do  your  soul  good ;  and 
often  ask  yourself  whether  you  are 
any  nearer  to  heaven,  for  being  a 
Sunday-scholar.  In  time,  if  your 
life  be  spared,  you  will  be  able  to 
teach  others  also;  and  I  wish  you 
no  higher  honour  than  that  of 
being  a  faithful  Sunday-schooi 
teacher. 


VERY   YOUNG    LADY.  167 


LETTER  THIRTY-FIRST. 

BEHAVIOUR    IN    CHURCH. 

My  dear  Mary, — There  is  no 
sound  in  a  great  city  more  pleasant 
to  people  in  general  than  that  of  the 
church-bells.  And  there  is  no  sight 
more  agreeable  than  that  of  hun- 
dreds and  thousands  of  well-dressed 
and  orderly  persons,  going  to  their 
several  places  of  worship.  When  I 
meet  these  groups  or  processions,  on 
a  fine  spring  morning,  my  heart 
rejoices  that  I  am  in  a  gospel  land  ; 
and,  as  I  see  parents  and  children 
going  up  to  the  house  of  God  in  com- 
pany, I  do  not  stop  to  ask  whether 
they  are  Methodists,  or  Lutherans, 
or  Episcopalians,  or  Presbyterians, 
or  Baptists,  or  Friends  ;  for  I  rejoice 
that  they  are  all  at  liberty  to  worship 
God  according  to  their  own  belief. 


IBS  LETTERS    TO    A 

But,  how  many  enter  the  place 
of  worship  without  any  thought  of 
God  !  Some  go  to  see  and  be  seen  ; 
some  to  gain  the  good-will  of  men ; 
some  to  gratify  their  curiosity  ;  some 
from  mere  habit ;  and  some  because 
they  do  not  know  what  else  to  do 
with  themselves.  And,  when  they 
have  entered  the  house  of  prayer, 
how  different  is  the  conduct  of 
individuals !  Those  who  fear  God 
are  silent,  serious,  and  quiet.  Those 
who  fear  him  not,  are  restless,  or 
even  noisy ;  some  smile  and  whis- 
per ;  others  gaze  about  as  if  they 
were  in  a  play-house. 

"  Even  a  child  is  known  by  his 
doings,  whether  his  work  be  pure, 
and  whether  it  be  right."  This 
proverb  of  Solomon  applies  to  the 
conduct  of  young  persons  in  church; 
and  I  often  make  up  my  mind  about 
the  children  of  my  friends,  from 
their  behaviour  in  this  place.    There- 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  169 

fore  remember  that  the  eyes  of  many 
are  upon  you,  and,  especially,  that 
the  eye  of  God  searches  your  very 
thoughts. 

Be  early  at  public  worship.  It 
you  go  late,  you  disturb  others,  and 
unfit  yourself  for  duty.  Nothing 
can  be  well  done  in  a  hurry.  Some 
persons  have  the  discredit  of  being 
always  late  at  church.  Some  do  this 
on  purpose  to  attract  notice.  But, 
you  will  remember,  that  the  begin- 
ning of  divine  exercises  is  as  pre- 
cious as  the  end. 

When  you  have  taken  your  seat, 
be  still.  You  have  come  to  worship. 
Let  your  thoughts  be  serious,  and 
about  divine  things.  Do  not  look 
around,  as  if  you  wished  to  examine 
every  dress  and  bonnet  in  the  house. 
Especially,  avoid  the  vulgar  habit 
of  turning  round  to  stare  at  those 
behind  you,  or  at  such  as  enter  the 
house  after  you.  Speak  not  one 
15 


170  LETTERS   TO    A 

word,  unless  it  be  absolutely  neces- 
sary ;  and,  if  young  companions  try 
to  catch  your  eye,  or  tempt  you  to  a 
smile,  turn  away  your  looks,  and 
they  will  know  that  you  reverence 
the  worship  of  God. 

The  prayers  which  are  offered 
are  for  you,  as  much  as  for  others. 
Your  heart  should  join  in  them; 
and  you  should  always  place  your- 
self in  that  posture  which  is  most 
devotional.  If  you  are  thinking 
about  other  things,  while  the  people 
of  God  are  praying,  )^ou  are  guilty 
of  pretending  to  worship,  while  you 
do  not. 

The  praises  which  are  sung,  are 
tor  you  also.  Join  in  the  psalms 
and  hymns.  Let  your  youthful 
voice  be  trained,  from  the  very  ear- 
iest  years,  to  glorify  God.  No 
Christian  soul  will  forbid  )^ou.  I 
know,  indeed,  that  the  chief-priests 
and  scribes  were  offended,  when  the 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  171 

children  uttered  hosannas  to  the  Son 
of  David;  but  what  was  the  reply 
of  Jesus  ?  "  Yea,  have  ye  never 
read,  Out  of  the  mouths  of  babes 
and  sucklings  thou  hast  perfectec 
praise  ?"  The  blessed  Saviour  loves 
to  receive  the  praises  of  children. 

When  the  Scriptures  are  read,  be 
all  attention.  It  is  an  excellent  prac- 
tice to  find  the  place,  and  read  it  in 
your  own  Bible  ;  and  it  is  much  to 
be  regretted  that  this  custom,  which 
is  universal  in  some  countries,  is  un- 
common in  our  own. 

When  the  minister  of  Christ 
preaches  the  gospel,  I  need  scarcely 
say,  you  ought  to  listen  to  every 
word.  Take  notice  of  what  he  says. 
Remember  the  subject  of  the  dis- 
course. As  far  as  possible,  avoid 
uneasiness,  restlessness,  and  drowsi- 
ness. I  sincerely  hope  you  will 
never  go  to  sleep  in  church. 

Many  persons  seem  to  think,  that 


172  LETTERS    TO    A 

as  soon  as  the  public  worship  is  at 
an  end,  they  may  do  as  they  please 
You  will  see  boys  and  girls  rushing 
out,  as  if  they  were  going  to  a  play- 
ground, and  making  the  gallery-stairs 
clatter  with  the  noise  of  their  feet. 
It  is  still  the  Lord's-day.  You 
ought  still  to  be  thinking  of  what 
you  have  been  doing.  Go  out,  there- 
fore, as  quietly  as  you  came  in  ;  and 
go  home  with  your  dear  parents 
silently,  or  listening  to  what  they 
say.  It  is  no  time  to  be  making  re- 
marks about  who  was  there,  and 
who  was  not  there ;  about  Mrs.  A.'s 
shawl,  or  Miss  B.'s  bonnet.  Much 
Sunday-talk  is  of  this  nature ;  and 
the  way  home  from  church  is  care- 
fully watched  by  the  wicked  one, 
who  is  busy  with  the  hearer  after 
the  seed  is  sown,  that  "he  may 
catch  away  that  which  was  sown  in 
his  heart."   Matt.  xiii.  19. 

When  you  have  returned   from 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY. 


173 


public  worship,  it  will  be  a  useful 
practice  for  you  to  go  to  your  room 
for  a  few  moments,  and  pray  foi 
God's  blessing  on  these  means  of 
grace. 


lb* 


174  LETTERS    TO    A. 


LETTER  THIRTY-SECOND. 

THE    BIBLE. 

My  dear  Mary, — Your  pious  pa 
rents  have  long  since  taught  you  to 
reverence  the  Holy  Scriptures.  You 
have  been  led  to  read  that  blessed 
book ;  you  have  learned  the  meaning 
of  various  parts ;  and  you  have  com- 
mitted many  passages  to  memory. 
You  are,  I  trust,  in  the  habit  of  read- 
ing a  chapter  or  two  every  day. 

All  this  is  well :  but  I  wish  you 
to  do  more  than  this — to  go  further, 
and  become  still  better  acquainted 
with  God's  inspired  volume.  It  is 
to  be  the  study  of  your  life.  The 
day  will  never  come,  I  hope,  when 
you  will  close  the  book,  and  say,  "  1 
have  done  with  it."  You  may  do  so 
with  other  books,  when  you  have  got 
fr/>m   them  all  they  can  give  you; 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  175 

but  this  is  the  book  of  heavenly  truth, 
and  it  can  never  be  exhausted.  You 
may  draw  all  the  water  out  of  a  cis- 
tern or  a  pool ;  but  a  living  fountain 
will  pour  out  its  stream  faster  than 
you  can  receive  it.  The  Bible  is 
such  a  fountain :  and  as  you  need 
water  every  day,  as  long  as  you  live, 
so  you  need  this  water  of  life,  until 
you  are  removed  to  another  world. 
Every  time,  therefore,  that  you  take 
up  your  Bible,  say  within  yourself, 
"This  is  to  be  my  study,  as  long  as 
I  live." 

If  you  are  ever  saved,  Mary,  it 
will  be  by  believing  God's  message, 
contained  in  this  volume.  Does  not 
this  make  it  the  most  important  of  all 
volumes  ?  Is  it  not  worth  more  to 
you  than  all  the  books  of  all  the  libra- 
ries on  earth  ?  Do  not  wonder,  then, 
that  I  beseech  you  to  look  on  it,  and 
think  of  it,  and  follow  it,  as  you  do 
no  other  book. 

Remember  what  the  apostle  Paul 


176  LETTERS    TO    A 

says  to  Timothy;  for  the  same  thing 
may  hereafter  be  said  of  you  :  "  that 
from  a  child  tbou  hast  known  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  which  are  able  to 
make  thee  wise  unto  salvation, 
through  faith  wThich  is  in  Christ 
Jesus."  2  Tim.  iii.  15.  O  !  what  a 
privilege ;  and  how  much  you  have 
to  be  thankful  for !  Millions  there 
are,  who  never  heard  of  the  Scrip- 
tares;  millions  there  are,  of  people 
called  Christians,  who  are  not  al- 
lowed to  read  the  Scriptures  in  their 
own  language.  But  whenever  you 
choose,  you  may  go  to  the  sacred 
volume.  When  you  do  so,  remem- 
ber it  is  God  who  there  speaks  to 
you ;  for,  as  you  may  see  in  the  very 
next  verse  to  the  one  I  just  now 
wrote,  "  All  Scripture  is  given  by  in- 
spiration of  God." 

Besides  the  lessons  which  are  set 
you  by  your  parents  and  teachers,  I 
advise  you  to  make  a  point  of  learn- 
ing something  out  of  the  Bible  every 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  177 

day.  There  are  many  places  too 
difficult  for  you  at  present ;  there  are 
places  which  are  difficult  even  for 
the  oldest  and  wisest  men ;  but 
there  are  places  enough  where  even 
a  child  may  find  comfort  and  instruc- 
tion. Learn  all  about  the  histories 
of  the  Bible,  especially  the  history 
of  our  blessed  Lord  and  Saviour. 
Let  this  be  printed  on  your  youthful 
heart.  Do  not  fail  to  commit  a 
verse  or  two  to  memory  every  day 
It  is  a  good  plan  to  learn  a  little  por- 
tion every  night.  You  can  then  think 
it  over  as  you  go  to  sleep,  and  fix  it 
in  your  mind  early  the  next  morn- 
ing. It  is  another  good  plan,  to  go 
to  your  Bible  in  the  morning,  before 
you  go  to  any  other  book.  How 
often  have  I  known  young  people 
keep  a  book  under  their  pillow,  to 
read  as  soon  as  it  was  day  :  but  it 
was  not  the  Bible.  I  should  rejoice 
to  know  that  my  dear  Mary  had  such 
a  love  for  the  best  of  books,  that  she 


178  LETTERS    TO    A. 

would  rise  early,  and  take  delight  in 
its  pages,  before  others  were  up  in 
the  house.  On  a  fine  summer  morn- 
ing, take  the  volume  in  your  hands, 
open  your  window,  and  seat  yourself 
to  read,  where  you  can  catch  a 
glimpse  of  the  green  fields,  the 
waving  woods,  and  the  freshness  of 
nature.  Then,  when  you  read  of  the 
goodness  and  the  grace  of  God,  you 
can  raise  your  eyes  and  behold  signs 
of  it  all  around  you.  Every  bird 
that  sings,  every  flower  that  opens  to 
the  rising  sun,  every  breath  of  odours 
from  the  meadows  and  gardens,  will 
be  more  lovely,  when  you  think  of 
them  as  coming  from  the  hand  of 
God.  The  Bible  says  much  about 
these  things.  Get  up  early,  and  read 
the  103d  and  104th  Psalms,  and  you 
will  know  what  I  mean. 

There  is  another  thing  which  I. 
feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  say  to  you. 
You  are  young,  and  youth  is  the  time 
of  gayety  and  hope.     You  fee_  as  if 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  179 

vour  whole  life  was  to  be  full  of 
pleasure.  Do  not  mistake  here,  my 
dear  child.  Do  not  think  to  go 
through  life  without  trouble.  Man 
is  born  to  trouble  as  the  sparks  fly 
upward.  Sooner  or  later,  affliction 
will  come  upon  you.  Now,  what  I 
have  to  tell  you  is,  that  the  only  book 
which  can  fully  comfort  you  in  the 
time  of  trial,  is  the  Bible.  Learn  to 
understand  it,  love  it,  and  believe  it, 
and  you  will  be  prepared  for  the  day 
of  affliction,  and  even  for  the  day  of 
death : 

The  best  relief  that  mourners  have, 

It  makes  our  sorrows  blest ; 
Our  fairest  hope  beyond  the  grave, 

And  our  eternal  rest. 

It  is  necessary  for  you  to  consider, 
that  the  God  who  inspired  the  writers 
of  the  Scripture,  can  make  you  un- 
derstand what  they  have  written. 
Therefore,  when  you  read,  pray.  Ask 
the  help  of  God's  Holy  Spirit,  that 
vou  may  not  mistake  the  meaning 


180 


LETTERS    TO    A 


of  his  word.  The  reading  of  a  por 
tion  of  Scripture  is  a  proper  part  of 
daily  devotion;  but  even  at  other 
times,  whenever  the  Bible  is  in  your 
hand,  lift  up  your  heart  to  God  in 
silent  prayer,  and  beg  for  that  light 
which  he  is  so  ready  to  give  to  those 
who  ask  him.  And  there  can  be  no 
better  prayer  for  you  than  that  of  the 
Psalmist :  Open  thou  mine  eyes,  that 
I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of 
thy  law. 


VERY   YOUNG    LADY.  ISi 


LETTER  THIRTY-THIRD. 

EARLY    PIETY. 

My  dear  Mary, — I  have  a  very 
important  question  to  ask  you.  It  is 
one  which  you  must  consider  with 
all  possible  attention.  Your  greatest 
interests  depend  on  it.  It  is  this . 
Are  you  prepared  for  heaven  ? 

Now,  my  dear  young  friend,  do  not 
lay  this  letter  aside,  in  fear  or  disgust. 
Thoughts  of  God  and  of  heaven 
should  never  be  disagreeable.  Do 
not  say  that  you  mean  to  be  prepared 
at  some  future  day,  and  there  is  time 
enough  yet.  To  think  so,  is  to  yield 
to  a  dreadful  temptation,  and  do 
exactly  what  Satan  desires.  If  he 
can  persuade  you  to  put  off  religious 
consideration  now,  he  will  persuade 
you  to  do  so  again  ;  and  so  on,  time 
16 


182  LETTERS    TO    A 

after  time,  till  this  habit  of  putting 
off — the  worst  of  evil  habits — shall 
have  grown  upon  you,  and  fixed  it- 
self, Why  do  so  many  thousands, 
in  a  gospel  land,  die  unconverted? 
Because  they  have  put  off  returning 
to  God  until  it  is  too  late.  You  do 
not  intend  to  put  it  off  forever  :  nei- 
ther did  they.  You  think  a  day  will 
come  when  you  will  repent :  so  did 
they.  You  know  much  about  the 
way  of  salvation  :  so  did  they.  And 
yet  they  are  lost !  Therefore  do  not 
refuse  to  consider  what  I  am  saying 
to  you. 

If  the  blessed  Saviour  were  now 
on  earth,  and  were  in  your  neigh- 
bourhood, and  were  to  stand  and  sa> 
again,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
labour  and  are  heavy  laden — take  my 
yoke  upon  you,"  I  trust  there  are 
many  who  would  go  to  him.  Would 
you  go  to  him?  Children  are  not 
excluded.      Christ    did    not  forbid 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  183 

them  of  old ;  he  does  not  forbid 
them  now.  Divine  Wisdom  still 
says:  "I  love  them  that  love  me, 
and  they  that  seek  me  early  shall 
find  me."  Prov.  viii.  17.  U  is  a  joy- 
ful sight  to  God,  to  angels,  and  to 
saints,  when  children  come  to  Christ, 
and  thus  become  ready  for  heaven. 

Why  should  not  you  be  a  true 
Christian  now,  at  this  very  moment? 
Why  should  you  wait  longer  ?  Is  it 
ever  too  soon  to  be  holy,  to  be  happy  ? 
Is  it  ever  too  soon  to  have  the  best 
of  friends,  and  to  be  united  to  all 
holy  beings  ?  Can  it  be  too  soon  to 
return  to  your  offended  Father  and 
be  reconciled  to  God?  You  can 
answer  these  questions  for  yourself. 

My  child,  we  are  travellers  in  a 
strange  land.  This  world  is  not  our 
home.  We  are  only  passing  through 
it.  The  journey  is  short.  All  the 
people  in  the  world  are  making  their 
way  across  this  plain,  and  all  are  in 


184  LETTERS    TO    A 

one  or  the  other  road  :  for  the  roads 
are  but  two.  While  the  great  multi- 
tude are  in  that  broad  road  that  leads 
to  destruction,  there  are  some  in  the 
narrow  road  that  leads  to  life.  When 
1  look  at  these  two  ways,  I  see  that 
the  further  the)'  go,  the  wider  apart 
they  are.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
journey,  where  the  roads  are  near 
together,  and  almost  in  sight,  it  is 
easy  to  go  from  the  broad  to  the  nar- 
row way.  As  the  travellers  advance, 
fewer  go  from  the  path  of  destruc- 
tion. 

Now  you  are  near  the  begin- 
ning of  the  pilgrimage.  It  will  be 
more  difficult,  every  day  you  live,  to 
go  from  the  beaten  track.  0,  my 
little  friend,  go  from  it  now !  Seize 
the  precious  moment !  God  can 
snatch  you  fiom  the  broad  way,  even 
in*the  midst  of  it :  but  you  will  make 
sure  )f  safety,  if  you  step  into  it 
now       Behold !  Jesus  stands  in  it. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  185 

and  spreading  his  bleeding  hands, 
with  tears  of  compassion,  cries 
to  you,  and  such  as  you, — "  Now, 
therefore,  hearken  unto  me,  O  ye 
children,  for  blessed  are  they  that 
keep  my  ways."  Blessed  be  God,  1 
can  see  many  little  ones  in  his  train ; 
youthful  Christians  who  are  in  the 
narrow  way  of  life,  journeying  to 
heaven.  Beautiful  sight!  blessed 
company  !  O  that  it  may  be  said  of 
you :  "  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good 
part,  which  shall  not  be  taken  away 
from  her?"     Luke  x.  42. 

Consider,  that  if  you  ought  to 
serve  Christ  at  all,  you  ought  to  serve 
him  always.  Consider  how  delight- 
ful it  is  to  give  a  whole  lifetime  to 
him  who  died  for  you.  Be  ashamed, 
as  well  as  afraid  to  act  the  ungrateful 
part  of  those  who  serve  Satan  as 
long  as  they  can,  in  the  hope  of  be- 
coming religious  at  the  last  hour 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  think  that 

16* 


•  86  LETTERS    TO    A 

you  will  lessen  your  happiness  by 
giving  your  heart  to  God,  even  in 
childhood.  You  will  have  to  give 
up  nothing  but  sin ;  and  sin  works 
misery.  Religion  is  true  happiness, 
and  those  enjoy  most  of  this,  who 
begin  to  enjoy  it  earliest.  Even  af- 
flictions for  Christ's  sake  become 
sweet :  "  Blessed  are  they  which  are 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake." 
Matt,  v.  10. 

It  is  also  a  great  mistake  to  think 
that  the  mind  of  a  child  is  unfit  for 
religion.  No,  my  dear  Mary.  As 
surely  as  you  love  your  father  and 
your  mother,  so  surely  you  may  love 
vour  Saviour. 

True,  there  are  deep  things  in  re- 
ligion ;  too  deep  for  your  youthful 
mind.  But  there  are  also  things  too 
deep  for  the  wisest  of  mortals,  m  this 
world.  And,  moreover,  there  are  a 
thousand  things  in  the  book  of  God 
which  are  fitted  for  the  youngest  as 


VERY   YOUNG    LADY.  187 

well  as  the  oldest.  For,  as  Jesus 
said,  "  Whosoever  shall  not  receive 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child, 
he  shall  not  enter  therein."  Mark 
x.  15. 

All  other  thoughts  may  well  be 
laid  aside,  until  this  greatest  concern 
is  settled.  Until  you  are  joined  to 
Christ,  yon  are  in  continual  danger. 
The  moment  you  have  saving  faith, 
you  are  justified  and  delivered  from 
the  wrath  of  God. 


188  LETTERS    TO    A 


LETTER   THIRTY-FOURTH 

PREPARATION    FOR   DEATH. 

My  dear  Mary, — When  I  wrote 
to  you  about  your  conversion  to  God, 
I  kept  back  some  things  which  I  now 
wish  to  say,  in  a  letter  by  itself.  In 
particular,  I  beg  you  to  consider  that 
you  may  die.  This  is  a  painful  sub- 
ject. Without  divine  grace,  none 
of  us  like  to  think  of  death.  But 
if  you  will  attend  to  what  I  am  say- 
ing, you  will  see  that  it  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  for  us  to  think 
much  about  it,  and  to  be  prepared 
for  it. 

If  all  persons  lived  to  be  old,  it 
might  be  safer  for  you  to  put  off  pre- 
paration. But  do  you  know  that  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  the  human 
race  die   before  they  are  as  old  as 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY  189 

you  ?  Do  you  know  that  the  burial- 
grounds  are  full  of  little  graves?  Do 
you  know  that  this  very  moment 
children  are  passing  into  eternity  ? 

No  man  can  tell  you  what  day  or 
hour  you  will  die.  It  may  be  this 
year.  It  may  be  this  month.  It  may 
be  this  day.  God  knoweth.  You 
see,  therefore,  as  plainly  as  you  see 
any  thing,  that  it  is  unsafe  and  un- 
wise to  live  in  a  state  in  which  you 
are  unprepared  to  meet  God.  When 
you  lie  down  at  night  in  sin  and  un- 
belief, you  cannot  be  sure  that  you 
will  ever  awake  in  this  world.  I 
trust  your  soul  already  rises  in  prayer 
to  God,  that  he  wTould  deliver  you 
from  so  wretched  and  dangerous  a 
state. 

I  hope  you  wTill  immediately  seek 
this  preparation.  You  will  then  be 
able  to  look  death  in  the  face.  The 
terror  of  this  enemy  will  be  gone. 
You  will  lie  down  in  peace,  knowing 


190  LETTERS    TO    A 

thai,  if  vou  die,  you  will  awake  in 
heaven.  Is  not  this  a  great  blessing  ? 
Would  it  not  add  to  your  happiness, 
by  curing  your  worst  fears  ?  Yet  it 
is  a  blessing  which  many  are  enjoy- 
ing at  this  moment :  it  is  a  blessing 
which  may  be  yours.  Yes,  my  child, 
once  get  the  full  assurance  of  hope 
in  your  soul,  and  you  need  be  no 
more  afraid  of  dying  than  of  going 
home.  Instead  of  thinking  of  death 
as  a  monster,  a  ghastly  skeleton,  that 
makes  your  blood  run  cold,  you  will 
think  of  it  as  the  end  of  all  pain  and 
all  sin,  or  as  of  one  who  opens  the 
door  which  admits  you  in  your  Fa- 
ther's house. 

What  is  it  to  be  prepared  for 
death?  This  is  the  very  thing 
wmich  I  wish  to  teach  you.  Give  me 
your  attention.  Believe  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  you  will  be  pre- 
pared for  death.  It  is  true,  gospel 
faith,  which  unites  to  the  Lord  Jesus 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY  19] 

Christ,  that  removes  all  danger 
from  dying.  You  know  it  is  punish- 
ment that  we  fear :  the  punishment 
of  our  sins.  Now,  if  the  sin  be  par- 
doned, there  is  no  fear  of  punish- 
ment. Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  your  sin  is  pardoned ; 
for  at  that  moment  you  are  "justified 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 
"  Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  The  mo- 
ment you  receive  Christ  as  a  Saviour, 
that  moment  you  are  received  to 
his  love.  You  are  in  no  more  dan- 
ger than  an  angel  in  heaven.  If  a 
stroke  of  lightning  should  that  in- 
stant take  away  your  life,  it  would 
mly  release  your  soul  and  bear  you 
upward  to  glory. 

This  is  good  news  indeed,  full  of 
grace  and  peace  to  sinners,  full  of 
the  love  of  God  our  Saviour.  So 
that,  though  I  am  writing  about  the 
most   dreadful  of  our  trials,   even 


192  LETTERS    TC    A 

death  itself,  you  see  I  have  blessed 
things  to  ttll  you ;  and  I  hope  you 
will  taste  the  sweetness  of*  this  gos- 
pel, in  your  own  experience. 

Truly  converted  persons  may  in- 
deed fear  death,  but  they  have  no 
reason  to  do  so.  No  pardoned  soul 
is  in  danger.  Death  can  do  no  harm 
to  such  a  one.  Unbelief  and  fear 
may  keep  them  from  thinking  so ; 
Satan  may  tempt  them  to  doubt ; 
but  if  they  are  believers  they  shall 
escape  this  enemy.  And,  sooner  01 
later,  God  generally  frees  all  his  chil 
dren  from  these  fears. 

Books  have  been  written,  which 
give  an  account  of  the  happy  death 
of  many  children,  even  younger  than 
you.  When  the  hour  of  their  de- 
parture was  come,  they  were  so  com- 
forted by  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  had 
such  a  sight  of  the  heavenly  glory, 
tiiat  they  could  calmly  bid  farewell 
to  their  friends,  and   resign   them 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY. 


193 


selves  to  the  arms  of  Jesus  O, 
that  divine  grace  may  give  you 
and  me  the  blessedness  of  such  a 
death ! 


IT 


194  LETTERS   TO   A 


LETTER  THIRTY-FIFTH. 

DUTY    OF    CHILDREN    TO    PIOUS   PARENTS. 

My  dear  Mary, — You  can  nevei 
be  thankful  enough  to  God  for  having 
given  you  pious  parents,  and  for  hav 
ing  preserved  their  lives  thus  far. 
You  have  some  things  to  answer  for, 
therefore,  more  than  the  children  of 
irreligious  persons ;  and  you  have 
reasons  for  seeking  the  conversion 
of  your  soul,  in  addition  to  the  rea- 
sons which  such  children  have. 

Think  of  the  Hindoos,  and  the  Chi- 
nese, and  many  such  heathen  people, 
who  put  their  female  children  to 
death,  by  thousands?  You  might 
have  been  born  among  them.  Or  if 
it  had  been  your  lot  to  be  among 
those  who  were  suffered  to  live,  you 
would  have  been  taught  from  your 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  195 

infancy  to  join  in  the  abominable 
worship  of  idols.  Think  of  the  Hot- 
tentots, the  Greenlanders  and  the 
Esquimaux ;  of  whom  you  read  a* 
school.  You  might  have  been  born 
among  them.  Your  parents  might 
have  been  snatched  from  you  by  the 
slave-trade;  and  you  would,  in  any 
case,  have  grown  up  in  ignorance, 
vice  and  idolatry.  Think  of  the 
countries  where  children,  even  of 
parents  professing  Christianity,  are 
not  allowed  to  read  the  Scriptures, 
and  are  taught  to  bow  down  before 
images,  the  work  of  men's  hands. 
Think  of  the  millions  of  children, 
in  Christian  lands,  whose  parents  are 
profane,  unjust,  cruel  and  ungodly. 
You  might  have  been  one  of  these. 
Think  of  all  this,  and  give  thanks  to 
God,  who  has  chosen  to  give  you 
your  birth  in  a  family  devoted  to  his 
fear  Ought  you  not  to  love  him 
with  all  your  heart  ?  Ought  you  not 
to  say 


196  LETTERS    TO    A 

Aie  these  thy  favours,  day  by  day, 

To  me  above  the  rest1? 
Then  let  me  love  thee  more  than  they, 

And  try  to  serve  thee  best. 

Though  you  may  die  very  young 
yourself,  yet  you  may  live  to  be  de- 
prived of  these  beloved  parents.  You 
may  stand  by  their  dying-bed,  or  fol- 
low their  bodies  to  the  grave.  The 
very  thought  of  this  fills  you  with 
grief;  but  it  is  wise  to  consider  it. 
Suppose  this  mournful  event  to  have 
taken  place  :  how  will  you  look  back 
on  your  conduct  towards  them  ?  How 
will  you  wish  you  had  treated  them  ? 
What  will  you  wish  you  had  done 
to  please  them?  Act  now  as  you 
will  then  wish  you  had  acted.  Espe- 
cially fulfil  their  desires  for  your 
own  good.  They  wish  you  every 
good,  but  above  all  they  long  for  the 
salvation  of  your  soul.  1  hey  have 
daily  prayed  for  this.  They  have 
repeatedly  offered  you  to  God,  to  be 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY  197 

his  forever.  Can  you  bear  the  thought 
of  letting  them  leave  the  world,  with- 
out accomplishing  this  their  most 
earnest  desire  ? 

I  need  not  tell  you  what  an  un 
speakable  joy  the  conversion  of  a 
child  gives  to  a  loving  parent.  It 
will  add  to  their  comfort  in  old  age ; 
it  will  perhaps  add  to  their  lives. 
You  will  then  be  able  to  help  them 
by  your  prayers,  and  to  join  with 
them  in  every  Christian  act.  You 
will  unite  with  them  at  the  Lord's 
table,  in  the  hope  of  meeting  them, 
after  a  little  time,  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  For  when  they  are  carried  to 
the  tomb,  and  you  are  left  an  orphan, 
you  will  feel  a  joyful  hope  amidst 
your  tears,  of  meeting  them  at  the 
right  hand  of  Christ,  at  the  last  day. 
Or/  if  it  should  please  God  to  take 
you  away  before  them,  which  I  have 
told  you  is  very  possible,  the  differ- 
ence will  be  great  between  your 
17* 


198  LETTERS   TO    A 

dying  the  death  of  the  righteous  and 
the  death  of  the  ungodly.  What 
agony  does  the  pious  mother  feel, 
whose  child  dies  without  hope! 
What  comfort  does  she  enjoy,  when 
she  knows  that  her  beloved  one  has 
fallen  asleep  in  Jesus  ?  It  is  a  duty 
which  children  owe  to  their  parents, 
as  well  as  to  their  God  and  Saviour, 
to  become  early  followers  of  Christ. 
You  have  the  hope,  that  when 
your  parents  die  they  will  go  to  hea- 
ven. But  this  will  not  save  your 
soul,  unless  you  believe  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  And  dreadful  will  be 
the  separation  of  ungodly  children 
from  their  godly  parents,  at  the  bar 
of  God.  For  though  this  is  not  the 
great  reason  why  you  should  return 
to  God,  it  is  one  of  the  reasons 
which  is  very  touching,  and  which 
God  approves.* 

*  Proverbs  x.  1 ;  xv.  20 ;  xxiii.  15, 16 ;  xxix.  .5. 


VERY    YOUNG   LADY.  199 


LETTER  THIRTY-SIXTH. 

FASHIONABLE    AMUSEMENTS. 

M  i  dear  Mary, — You  cannot  go 
entirely  out  of  the  world,  and  will 
always  have  young  people  around 
3^ou  who  have  not  been  brought  up 
in  the  same  principles  as  yourself. 
Even  among  your  own  relations 
there  may  be  gay  and  worldly  per- 
sons, who  love  you,  but  who  will 
nevertheless  lead  you  into  evil.  It 
will  require  great  resolution  and 
much  grace  to  enable  you  to  say  No 
to  their  entreaties.  Yet  you  must 
"earn  to  say  No  :  and  now  is  the  very 
time  to  begin.  Avoid  the  first  wrong 
step;  for  if  you  take  that,  it  will  be 
harder  to  avoid  the  rest. 

The  advice  of  your  parents  will 
*w  your  best  guide*  but  I  wTish  to 


200 


LETTERS    TO    A 


help  them,  by  giving  you  the  same, 
that  you  may  see  how  reasonable 
their  wishes  are.  If  yon  are  wise 
and  dutiful,  you  wTill  never  enter 
into  any  company  or  entertainment, 
until  you  have  found  out  what  they 
think  of  it. 

You  know  that  Dancing  is  a  fa- 
vourite amusement  of  young  people. 
I  have  already  written  a  few  lines 
about  it,  but  it  may  be  well  to  say  a 
little  more;  especially  as  at  your  age 
you  need  line  upon  line  and  precept 
upon  precept.  I  have  not  said  that  it 
is  a  sin  to  move  the  body  and  limbs  in 
the  way  that  we  call  dancing.  But 
I  do  say,  and  I  beg  you  to  remem- 
ber, that  most  of  the  dancing-parties 
I  have  ever  known  have  led  to  very 
great  evils.  They  are  places  of  sin- 
ful levity,  imprudence  and  tempta- 
tion, unfit  for  the  children  of  a  house 
where  God  is  feared.  They  bring  to- 
gether company  who  meet  nowhere 


VERY    YOUNG    I  ADY.  201 

else,  and  who  ought  not  to  meet  at 
all.  They  are  usually  continued  till 
an  hour  of  the  night  when  health 
and  good  order  require  young  persons 
to  be  in  their  chambers.  They  al- 
ways lead  to  the  spending  of  money, 
which  might  be  laid  out  in  a  better 
way.  And  they  unfit  the  soul  for  that 
devotion  for  which  we  ought  to  be 
always  prepared,  and  which  ought 
to  close  every  day. 

Look  at  those  who  are  known  to 
be  most  fond  of  balls  and  assemblies. 
Are  they  the  wisest  and  holiest  peo- 
ple ?  Are  they  those  who  are  most 
punctual  in  attending  religious  meet- 
ings ?  Are  they  those  who  love  the 
Bible  most?  Are  they  those  who 
are  most  active  in  visiting  the  sick 
and  the  poor  ?  Are  they  those  whom 
you  would  send  for  if  you  were  dy- 
ing ?  No !  They  are  the  gay  and 
thoughtless;  either  ungodly  persons 
or  fashionable  professors  of  religion. 


202  LETTERS    TO    A 

Listen  to  what  the  best  Christians 
of  every  age  have  said  about  such 
pleasures.  With  one  voice  they  have 
declared  them  to  be  dangerous.  And 
it  is  a  sign  that  religion  is  decaying, 
in  any  country,  city  or  congregation, 
when  the  same  persons  go  to  the 
Lord's  table  and  to  the  dance. 

You  have  never  been  in  a  theatre  ; 
neither  have  I.  Though  I  have  seen 
the  outside  of  many,  and  passed  some 
of  them  hundreds  of  times,  I  never 
entered  the  doors.  It  is  enough  for 
me  to  say,  that  the  theatre  is  a  place 
which  no  Christian  lady  should  ever 
enter.  There  are  good  reasons  for 
this,  which  your  excellent  mother 
knows,  and  which  she  will  tell  you 
may  be  better  explained  when  you 
are  older.  Thousands  of  young  men 
are  ruined  by  going  to  the  theatre, 
which  is  cause  enough  why  no  young 
woman  should  encourage  them.  I 
say  the  same  of   he  circus,  and  of 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  203 

all  exhibitions  of  c.owns,  jugglers, 
mountebanks  and  comic  singers 
They  are  crowded  with  the  lowest 
and  vilest  characters.  If  you  should 
go  to  them,  you  would  be  amidst  lan- 
guage such  as  would  frighten  you, 
and  would  hear  the  awful  names  of 
God  taken  in  vain.  The  opera, 
though  more  elegant,  is  sometimes 
even  more  wicked  ;  so  that  I  can  only 
say,  of  one  and  all,  they  are  Satan's 
snares,  to  lead  young  and  old  to  per- 
dition. 

Your  companions  will  tell  you  of 
the  paintings,  the  scenery,  the  music, 
the  dresses,  the  acting,  and  will  as- 
sure you  they  are  enchanting.  So 
they  are ;  so  is  the  wine  which  makes 
the  drunkard  ;  so  was  the  fruit  which 
tempted  Eve;  but  they  will  injure 
your  soul's  peace;  and  you  daily 
pray,  Lead  us  not  into  temptation. 

^oung  persons  are  very  inquisi- 
tive, and  very  curious  to  see  and 


204  LETTERS    TO    A 

hear  what  is  new.  You  wTill  feel  a 
natural  desire  to  go  where  others 
have  so  much  entertainment.  But 
do  not  give  way  to  this  desire.  There 
are  many  things  which  you  ought 
not  to  know.  "But  may  I  not  go 
once'?  only  a  single  time,  to  find  out 
what  it  is?"  No,  my  dear  child, 
not  even  once.  My  honoured  parents 
never  allowed  me  to  enter  such 
places,  and  I  have  followed  their 
wise  and  affectionate  counsels,  since 
I  became  a  man.  And,  looking  back 
over  many  years,  I  do  not  see  that  I 
have  lost  any  thing  for  having  never 
been  at  the  theatre,  the  circus,  or  the 
opera. 

The  truth  is,  Christians  are  a  pe- 
culiar people.  There  ought  to  be  a 
great  difference  between  them  and 
the  world.  They  are  commanded 
to  come  out  of  the  world,  and  to  be 
separate.  They  ought  not  to  follow 
the  fashions  of  a  world  that    ieth  in 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  205 

wickedness.  They  are  not  to  go  by 
the  notions  and  example  of  light,  and 
trilling  sinners,  but  to  set  such  an 
example  that  these  sinners  may  fol- 
low it  and  be  saved.  And  the  chil- 
dren of  true  Christians  are  bound  to 
do  the  same.  If  you  go  where  your 
parents  think  it  wrong  to  go,  you  dis- 
honour your  parents.  To  honour 
your  father  and  mother,  is  to  do  what 
they  desire  and  approve.  And  where 
you  see  the  children  of  professing 
Christians  engaging  in  pleasures 
which  are  offensive  to  devout  per- 
sons, you  may  be  sure  that  the 
parents  have  lost  their  authority, 
that  the  young  people  themselves 
have  lost  their  reverence  for  their 
parents. 

There  is  no  gloom  or  sourness  in 
religion ;  but  there  is  much  strict- 
ness, modesty  and  sobriety.  You 
may  be  as  cheerful  and  happy  as  the 
thrush  or  the  mocking-bird,  and  yet 
18 


206  LETTERS    TO   A 

go  to  no  more  plays  or  balls  than 
they.  And  your  joy  v/ill  be  infinite- 
ly greater  than  that  of  the  gay  world, 
if  it  is  the  joy  of  real  religion. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  207 


LETTER  THIRTY-SEVENTH. 

THOUGHTS  FOR  THE  FUTURE. 

My  dear  Mary, — Have  you  never 
sat  at  sunset,  or  in  the  evening  twi- 
light, and  imagined  yourself  in  situa- 
tions where  you  had  never  been? 
You  need  not  answer  me.  I  was  once 
young,  and  youth  is  very  much  the 
same  with  all.  You  also  have  yield- 
ed to  these  pleasant  dreams.  You 
thought  perhaps  of  what  would  hap- 
pen when  you  should  be  a  little  older. 
You  even  supposed  yourself  a  young 
lady,  free  from  school,  free  from  care, 
with  money  at  command,  and  with, 
every  one  admiring  you.  You  fan- 
cied scenes  in  which  the  heroine  was 
always  successful,  always  fortunate; 
and  this  heroine  was  always  your- 
self.     Confess    to    yourself,   Mary 


208  LETTERS    TO    a 

Have  you  not  caught  yourself  in 
such  day-dreams?  I  do  not  say 
the)r  are  very  wise,  but  they  are  very 
common.  This  is  the  way  that  youth 
looks  forward  to  life.  All  is  to  be 
bright,  like  a  summer  morning. 
There  are  to  be  no  storms  and  no 
clouds.  The  birds  are  to  sing  and 
the  flowers  to  bloom  on  every  side. 
The  paths  are  to  be  always  smooth, 
the  company  always  kind,  and  the 
prospects  always  delightful.  It  is  as 
easy  to  fancy  pleasure  as  pain,  and 
the  childish  heart  predicts  only  plea- 
sure. To  build  such  edifices  gives 
less  trouble  than  to  make  a  house  of 
cards  ;  no  wonder  so  many  are  built. 
The  English  call  them  castles-in-the- 
air,  and  the  French  chateaux-en-Es- 
pagne. 

I  am  sorry  to  tell  you,  my  dear, 
that  all  these  castles  must  come 
down.  I  wish  you  a  happy  life;  but 
the   happiest  life  is  full  of  troubles. 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  209 

H  you  live  a  little  longer,  cares  will 
thicken  around  you.  Friends  will 
die.  Weakness  and  pain  will  come 
Anxieties  which  you  never  dreamed 
of  will  visit  you.  Like  all  other 
human  beings,  you  will  taste  the  cup 
of  suffering.  And  those  fairy  tales, 
which  fancy  and  hope  have  whis- 
pered in  your  ear,  will  not  make  your 
trials  less  annoying. 

But  I  can  tell  you  what  will  do  so  : 
trust  in  the  providence  of  God.  Our 
kind  Creator  and  Redeemer  has  not 
placed  us  in  a  world  of  sorrow,  with- 
out furnishing  us  with  consolation. 
If  an  angel  were  to  show  you  a  his- 
tory of  all  the  cares  and  pains  which 
shall  come  upon  you,  it  would  fill 
you  with  dismay.  So  great  a  bur- 
den would  crush  your  soul.  But 
God,  in  his  mercy,  divides  the  bur- 
den into  portions ;  a  little  on  one  day 
and  a  little  on  another.  And  we  are 
not  to  be  thinking  of  the  troubles 
18* 


210  LETTERS    TO    A 

winch  are  to  come,  but  are  to  do  our 
duty,  and  strive  to  bear  up  under 
those  which  are  present. 

Have  faith  in  God,  and  commit  all 
your  future  life  to  Him.  He  will 
direct  you.  It  is  impossible  for  us 
to  know  what  a  day  may  bring  forth ; 
but  the  Lord  knows,  and  the  Lord 
will  provide.  "  Commit  thy  way 
unto  the  Lord,  trust  also  in  him, 
and  he  shall  bring  it  to  pass."  Ps. 
xxxvii.  5. 

It  is  in  this  way  that  some  of  the 
most  afflicted  of  the  human  race 
have  been  supported  in  their  trials. 
God  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn 
lamb.  When  his  children  suffer, 
he  comes  to  them  and  helps  them. 
Even  children  are  the  objects  of  his 
care.  "  Take  heed,"  said  our  blessed 
Lord,  "  that  ye  despise  not  one  ot 
these  little  ones :  for  I  say  unto  you, 
that  in  heaven  their  angels  do  always 
behold  the  face  of  my  Father  which 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  2 LI 

is  in  heaven."  How  many  have 
found  it  true,  when  they  have  been 
left  orphans!  Just  at  that  time  of 
want  and  anguish  God  has  shown 
himself  ready  to  help  them.  "  A 
father  of  the  fatherless,  and  a  judge 
of  the  widows,  is  God  in  his  holy 
habitation."*  And  the  pious  child 
may  say  with  confidence,  "  When 
my  father  and  my  mother  forsake 
me,  then  the  Lord  will  take  me  up  "f 

You  need  not,  therefore,  tremble 
for  what  is  to  come.  Nothing  can 
happen  to  you  without  the  permission 
of  God.  Ask  him  to  take  you  by 
the  hand  and  lead  you.  He  will 
guide  you,  as  the  shepherd  does  his 
flock ;  he  will  carry  the  lambs  in  his 
bosom.  He  will  make  you  to  lie 
down  in  green  pastures,  beside  the 
still  waters.  He  will  never  leave 
you  nor  forsake  you. 

There  was  once  a  storm   at  sea, 

*  Ps.  Ixiiii.  5.  f  Ps.  xxvii.  10. 


212  LETTERS    TO    A 

and  the  ship  was  in  danger  of  being 
lost.  Most  of  the  passengers  were 
in  great  terror ;  but  there  was  a  little 
boy  among  them,  who  was  perfectly 
calm.  They  asked  him  if  he  was 
not  afraid.  No,  said  he,  my  father  is 
at  the  helm.  It  was  a  beautiful  an- 
swer. Our  Father  is  at  the  helm 
Our  heavenly  Father  directs  the 
storm.  It  cannot  hurt  us,  without  his 
order.  Feel  this  to  be  true,  and  you 
will  be  composed  in  the  greatest  dan- 
gers. Sudden  or  violent  illness  may 
seize  you,  but  you  will  not  be  alarm- 
ed, because  you  will  trust  in  Him 
who  has  all  diseases  at  his  command. 
Such  is  the  happiness  of  a  mind 
which  rests  on  the  providence  of 
God. 

We  live  in  a  time  of  great  changes. 
Even  now,  while  I  write,  hundreds 
of  families  which  were  living  in 
wealth  a  few  months  ago,  are  brought 
down  to  poverty.     If  your  parents 


VERIr  YOUNG  LADY.     213 

are  still  enjoying  a  sufficiency,  it  is 
of  the  Lord's  mercies,  and  you 
should  be  thankful  that  it  is  so.  But 
"riches  certainly  make  themselves 
wings;  they  fly  away  as  an  eagle  to- 
wards heaven."  1'rov.  xviii.  5.  The 
breaking  of  one  bank,  or  a  fire  in 
one  street,  might  make  your  father  a 
poor  man  to-morrow.  Do  not  trust 
in  riches,  therefore,  but  trust  in  God. 
Christ  would  have  his  followers  to 
be  without  anxiety  for  the  future: 
and  he  teaches  them  a  lesson  from 
the  birds  and  the  flowers  :  "  Behold 
the  fowls  of  the  air :  for  they  sow 
not,  neither  do  they  reap  nor  gather 
into  barns ;  yet  your  heavenly  Father 
feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not  much  bet- 
ter than  they  ? — Consider  the  lilies 
of  the  field,  how  they  grow ;  they  toil 
not,  neither  do  they  spin;  and  yet  I 
say  unto  you,  that  Solomon,  in  all 
his  glory,  was  not  arrayed  like  one 
of   these.      Wherefore,  ;f    God    so 


214 


LETTERS   TO    A 


clothe  the  grass  of  the  field,  which 
to-day  is,  and  to-morrow  is  cast  into 
the  oven,  shall  he  not  much  more 
clothe   you,    O  ye  of  little   faith?' 
Matt.  vi.  26,  28,  29,  30. 


s 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  215 


LETTER   THIRTY-EIGHTH. 

USEFULNESS. 

My  dear  Mary, — You  must  not 
grow  weary  of  hearing  me  repeat,  that 
the  great  rule  of  life  is  to  try  to  make 
every  one  happy  around  you.  You 
were  not  sent  into  the  world  to  live 
only  for  yourself,  but  to  care  for 
others  and  to  be  useful.  Some- 
times it  will  cost  you  a  sacrifice  to 
do  so,  but  you  will  be  all  the  happier 
for  making  this  sacrifice.  It  is  the 
privilege  of  your  sex  to  forget  self, 
and  scatter  blessings  upon  others.  In 
all  countries,  the  stranger,  the  travel- 
ler and  the  slave  turn  for  relief  to 
the  gentle  hand  of  woman.  And  as 
Providence  has  bestowed  on  you  a 
more  tender  heart  than  on  us,  so  it 
has    placed  you   in    circumstances 


216  LETTERS    TO    A 

where  your  pity  and  kindness  can 
oftener  make  your  fellow-creatures 
happy. 

Begin  now,  my  little  friend,  to  put 
these  rules  into  practice.  Begin  with 
the  purpose  of  continuing  to  do  good 
all  your  life.  Begin  with  those  who 
are  nearest  to  you,  those  who  live  in 
the  same  house  with  you.  It  will 
soon  be  found  out,  by  all  around  you, 
that  you  like  to  be  employed  in  their 
service.  If  a  little  piece  of  work 
will  oblige  any  one,  do  it  at  once , 
even  if  it  be  not  your  peculiar  busi- 
ness. If  a  needle  or  a  book  or  an 
article  of  dress  is  needed,  be  on  the 
alert  to  bring  it.  If  there  is  no  one 
to  go  on  a  trifling  errand,  and  there 
is  no  impropriety  in  it,  offer  your  ser- 
vices. The  motion  will  do  you  good  , 
and  you  will  acquire  prompt  and 
sprightly  habits.  And  in  every  such 
case  let  your  manner  be  cheerful  and 
from  the  heart.    Such  conduct  sheds 


VERY    YOUNG    LAI/Y.  217 

h  sort  of  sunshine  over  a  whole  com- 
pany Such  little  services,  instead 
of  being  a  burden  to  you,  will  soon 
become  your  chief  pleasure.  An  in- 
dividual who  pursues  this  course  is 
a  blessing  to  all  the  household.  Her 
example  is  followed  by  others ;  and 
even  the  peevishness  and  moroseness 
of  those  who  act  otherwise  will  at 
length  give  way  before  the  power  of 
love.  I  can  never  forget  the  saying 
of  a  young  lady,  whose  sweetness 
of  temper  was  such  as  I  recom- 
mend, and  who  often  used  to  ex- 
claim, when  conferring  such  favours, 
Trouble  is  pleasure  ! 

When  you  go  abroad,  do  not  forget 
your  maxim.  You  are  still  to  make 
others  happy.  Let  it  shine  in  your 
countenance;  not  by  putting  on  a 
hypocritical  smile,  but  by  feeling  the 
glow  of  real  benevolence.  At  school 
or  on  visits,  at  work  or  play,  be  kind, 
be  watchful  for  cases  where  vou  can 
19 


218  LETTERS    TO    A 

do  a  favour,  plan  what  will  be  agree- 
able to  others,  and  forget  yourself. 
This  is  the  secret  of  going  pleasantly 
through  the  world ;  and  if  you  act 
thus  from  Christian  principles,  you 
will  enjoy  all  the  happiness  which 
this  life  can  afford 

The  case  mav  occur  where  you 
will  have  to  give  a  fellow-creature  a 
momentary  pain,  in  order  to  do  him 
good.  If  you  shrink  from  this,  it 
shows  that  your  good- will  is  not 
pure.  The  giving  of  such  pain,  in 
such  circumstances,  is  the  greatest 
act  of  friendship.  Do  you  not  re- 
member that  when  the  surgeon  set 
your  broken  arm,  it  gave  you  great 
pain  :  yet  you  love  him  for  it  now, 
and  it  was  an  act  of  kindness  in  him. 
If  your  younger  brother  or  sister,  or 
friends,  do  what  is  wrong,  it  will 
sometimes  be  your  duty  to  reprove 
them  ;  even  if,  in  doing  so,  you  offend 
them  for  the  instant.  But  where  there 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  219 

is  love  in  the  heart,  such  acts  wiL 
almost  always  be  taken  as  favours. 

Times  when  your  friends  are  ill 
will  give  opportunities  of  much  use 
fulness.  Diseases  and  pains  enter 
every  family ;  and  the  iemale  hand 
is  that  which  gives  the  greatest  relief. 
No  man  can  ever  be  so  waited  on  by 
others  in  illness,  as  most  of  us  have 
been  by  a  mother  or  a  sister  or  a 
wife.  And  the  wife  is  most  useful 
^o  her  husband,  who  has  learned  the 
arts  ot  gentleness  and  kindness  when 
she  was  a  little  girl.  Do  not,  how- 
ever, confine  your  good  services  to 
your  own  relations.  When  your  lit- 
tle friend  is  confined  to  a  bed  of  pain, 
ask  whether  it  is  proper  for  you  to 
see  her ;  and  go,  with  a  cheerful  air, 
to  help  in  nursing  her,  and  entertain- 
ing her.  Such  attentions  are  often 
worth  more  than  medicine.  But 
especially  take  a  pleasure  in  relieving 
the  wants  of  the  poor.     I  have  al- 


22l>  LETTERS    TO    A 

ready  advised  you  in  regard  to  alms- 
giving ;  but  the  poor  need  many 
things  beside  money.  You  may 
carry  a  bowl  of  warm  drink  to  the 
bedside  of  the  afflicted  widow.  You 
may  go,  after  school,  and  read  to  her 
out  of  the  Scriptures.  You  may 
stir  her  fire  and  smooth  her  pillow, 
as  she  lies  helpless,  without  son  or 
daughter  to  comfort  her. 

I  say  again,  Live  to  be  useful,  and 
begin  now.  Do  not  say,  I  am  but  a 
little  girl,  there  is  nothing  that  I  can 
do.  It  is  not  so.  Though  you  are 
but  a  little  girl,  there  are  a  thousand 
ways  in  which  you  can  do  some- 
thing to  make  others  happy ;  and 
some  of  these  are  occurring  every 
day.  A  cup  of  cold  water,  given  to 
a  thirsty  traveller,  is  something.  For 
what  does  Christ  say  of  such  a  fa- 
vour to  his  disciples  ?  "  Whosoever 
shall  give  you  a  cup  of  wrater  to 
drink  in  my  name,  because  ye  belong 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  221 

to  Christ,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  he 
shall  not  lose  his  reward."*  And  this 
reminds  me  of  the  following  verses, 
which  are  worth  remembering: 

'Tis  a  little  thing 
To  give  a  cup  of  water;  yet  its  draught 
Of  cool  refreshment,  drained  by  fevered  lips, 
May  give  a  thrill  of  pleasure  to  the  frame 
More  exquisite  than  when  nectareous  juice 
Renews  the  life  of  joy  in  happiest  hours. 
It  is  a  little  thing  to  speak  a  phrase 
Of  common  comfort,  which  by  daily  use 
Has  almost  lost  its  sense;  yet  on  the  ear 
Of  him  who  thought  to  die  unmourned  'twill  fall 
liike  choicest  music. 

There  is  a  passage  which  you  have 
often  read  in  the  New  Testament, 
but  which  you  should  read  once 
more,  and  lay  it  up  in  your  heart ;  for 
it  shows  what  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
thinks  of  kindness  to  his  afflicted 
people.  It  represents  him  on  his 
throne  of  judgment,  with  all  nations 
gathered    before    him.     It   tells   us 

*  Mark  ix.  41. 
19* 


LETTERS    TO    A 


what  he  will  say  both  to  the  righteous 
and  the  wicked.  And,  as  you  and  I 
must  meet  there,  may  God  grant  that 
the  Judge  may  say  to  us,  Inasmuch 
as  ye  did  it  unto  the  least  of  these,  ye 
di-4  it  unto  me  /* 

*  Matt.  xxv.  31—46. 


VERY   YOUNG    LADY.  223 


LETTER  THIRTY-NINTH. 

ENTERTAINMENT    OUT    OF    DOORS, 

My  dear  Mary, — The  beautiful 
autumn  has  now  come  It  is,  above 
all  seasons,  the  one  for  healthful  ex- 
ercise. The  woods  have  not  yet  lost 
their  verdure.  The  air  is  cool  and 
bracing.  The  earth  is  dry  and  fit  for 
walking ;  and  the  flowers,  if  not  so 
delicate  as  those  of  spring,  are  more 
numerous  and  more  easily  found. 
You  will  take  advantage  of  these 
things,  and  will  lose  no  chance  of 
gaining  that  profit  and  pleasure 
which  is  to  be  found  in  walks  and 
rides  and  excursions. 

There  is  much  to  be  learned  out 
of  doors.  All  nature  opens  its  book 
before  you.  It  is  written  by  the 
same  Almighty  hand  which  wrote 


224  LETTERS   TO    A. 

the  Law  ;  and  it  would  be  folly  not 
to  read  in  it.  Now  is  the  time  to 
.ay  in  a  stock  of  health  and  spirits 
for  the  winter.  Without  strength 
and  cheerfulness  you  cannot  be  very 
useful,  and  witnout  enjoying  the  air 
and  exercise  of  the  country  you  can 
scarcely  avoid  being  weak. 

Now  is  the  time  to  enjoy  the  fruits 
of  your  early  rising.  What  is  more 
enlivening  than  the  freshness  of  a 
morning  in  September,  after  the 
days  have  become  shorter  than  the 
nights?  You  can  surely  rise  at  six; 
and  then  you  will  behold  one  of  the 
most  glorious  sights  which  the  Cre- 
ator has  afforded  us — the  entrance 
of  the  sun  on  our  region  of  the  earth. 
Gaze  and  wonder,  and  praise  Him 
"that  made  the  sun  to  rule  by 
day." 

If  you  have  the  happiness  to  be  in 
the  country  at  this  season,  on  an  ex- 
pensive farm,  your  pleasures  will  be 


VERY    FOUNG    LADY.  225 

much  increased.  Every  step  (you 
take  will  bring  you  near  some  object 
of  interest.  The  lowing  herd  going 
from  milking  to  their  meadow ;  the 
flocks  of  sheep  nibbling  the  short 
grass  over  the  hilly  field  ;  the  chirp 
and  carol  of  birds  among  the  witch- 
hazel,  along  the  little  stream  that  runs 
from  the  milk-house ;  and  the  voice 
of  labourers  at  their  early  work.  All 
these  are  the  morning  sights  and 
sounds  of  a  farm,  in  autumn.  Let 
sour  folks  despise  such  entertain- 
ments, if  they  know  of  any  better ; 
but  they  are  just  such  as  the  word 
of  God  teaches  us  to  remark  and  to 
love.  They  lead  our  minds  to  medi- 
tation and  praise.  David  took  great 
notice  of  them,  perhaps  even  from  the 
time  when  he  tended  his  sheep  in  the 
fieldsof  Bethlehem.  He  looks  upward 
and  praises  the  Creator:  saying,  "  He 
sendeth  the  springs  into  the  valleys, 
which  ran  among  the  hills.  By  them 


226  LETTERS   TO    A 

shall  the  fowls  of  heaven  huve  their 
habitation,  which  sing  among  the 
branches. — Thou  makest  darkness 
and  it  is  night,  wherein  all  the  beasts 
of  the  field  do  creep  forth.  The 
young  lions  roar  after  their  prey,  and 
seek  their  meat  from  God.  The  sun 
ariseth,  they  gather  themselves  to- 
gether, and  lay  them  down  in  their 
dens.  Man  goeth  forth  unto  his 
work  and  to  his  labour,  until  the 
evening.  O  Lord !  how  manifold 
are  thy  works  !  in  wisdom  hast  thou 
made  them  all :  the  earth  is  full  of 
thy  riches." 

Join  your  young  friends  and  go 
abroad  into  the  woods  and  orchards. 
The  later  peaches  are  not  yet  gone ; 
in  some  of  our  states  you  may  have 
them  through  all  October.  See  the 
men  heaping  up  piles  of  apples,  and 
barrelling  them  for  market.  Former- 
ly I  used  to  see  far  greater  piles,  bu* 
for  a  deadly   purpose.     Thousands 


VERY   YOUNG   LADY.  227 

of  wagon-loads  were  brought  toge- 
ther, pressed  and  distilled  ;  and  thus 
one  of  the  most  wholesome  and  deli- 
cious gifts  of  God  was  turned  into  a 
destructive  liquor,  ruinous  to  soul 
and  body.  Hear  the  cheerful  sound 
of  the  flail  in  yonder  barn !  It  is 
music  to  the  farmer's  ear.  The 
rising  heaps  of  wheat  tell  him  of  the 
goodness  of  the  Creator.  Listen  to 
the  strokes  of  the  axe  in  the  wood  ! 
There  the  sturdy  woodman  is  felling 
the  tall  hickory  for  the  winter's  fuel. 

As  you  return,  rosy-cheeked  and 
bright-eyed,  to  your  breakfast,  per- 
haps the  quail  will  whistle  Bob  While 
n  the  stubble-field,  or  the  hare  start 
up  in  your  path  and  bound  away  be- 
fore the  dogs.  These  are  common 
matters  in  the  country,  but  they  are 
iull  of  interest  to  one  who  has  been 
long  confined  to  school. 

I  am  sure  you  will  need  no  persua- 
sion \»  ben  your  good  father  invites 


2*28  LETTERS   TO    A 

you  to  a  jaunt  among  the  huls.    You 
will  be  ready  long  before  the  carriage 
is  at  the  door.     You  will  scarcely  be 
able  to  make  your  breakfast,  for  agi- 
tation and  hope.     Then,  when  the 
brisk  horses  set  off,  the  wheels  will 
hardly  go  round  fast  enough  for  you. 
And  as  fences  and  hedges  and  fields 
slip   away  behind    you,    your   little 
heart  will  seem  to  lose  all  its  cares. 
O  how  joyful  is  the  group  of  boys 
and  girls  on  a  journey  of  pleasure! 
O  how  many  a  joy  reaches  the  pa- 
rents' heart,   at   the   enjoyments  of 
fheir  little  ones !     These  are  inno- 
cent,  useful   entertainments.      You 
drink  in  health  at  every  breath.  You 
learn  more  in  an  hour  than  could  be 
written  down  in  a  week.     It  is  as 
instructive  as  it  is  agreeable,  to  see 
new   places,   visit  water-falls,  caves 
and  other  curiosities,  or  get  a  glimpse 
of  blue  mountains  or  of  the  ocean. 
Such  sights  are  remembered  as  long 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  229 

as  we  live,  and  you  will  love  your 
parents  more  for  laying  up  in  your 
memory  such  a  store  of  delightful 
recollections. 

The  study  of  natural  history,  in 
some  of  its  branches,  may  be  pur- 
sued to  advantage  at  such  a  time.  It 
is  pleasing  to  children,  it  leads  them 
to  take  notice  of  what  is  around  them, 
it  affords  the  finest  exercise,  and  it 
teaches  much  of  the  greatness  and 
goodness  of  God.  In  your  rambles 
you  will  learn  to  know  all  the  trees  of 
the  wood,  and  the  differences  of  their 
leaves,  limbs  and  fruit.  You  will 
gather  hundreds  of  plants,  which 
you  may  easily  press  and  preserve 
in  what  is  called  an  herbarium.  You 
will  get  the  art  of  knowing  the 
birds  of  the  country,  by  their  plu- 
mage, their  voice  and  their  nests. 
You  will  find  beautiful  minerals, 
which  may  be  arranged  when  you 
return  home.  And  if  you  go  near  ihe 
20 


230 


LETTERS    TO    A 


sea,  there  will  be  no  end  to  the  shells, 
which  will  give  you  amusement  in 
the  long  winter  evenings. 

These  are  rational  and  innocent 
amusements.  Those  who  enjoy  such 
will  never  need  the  dice-box,  the 
card-table,  the  assembly,  or  the  play- 
house. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  23 1 


LETTER   FORTIETH. 

HOME. 

My  dear  Mary, — Since  I  iast 
wrote  to  you,  there  has  heen  a  great 
change  in  the  season.  The  woods 
are  bare  and  leafless.  The  garden 
shows  nothing  but  a  few  evergreens. 
Except  the  plump  snow-bird,  all  the 
feathered  tribe  have  disappeared. 
When  I  look  out  of  my  study- win- 
dow, and  survey  the  prospect  where 
I  lately  saw  green  fields  and  orchards, 
[  now  behold  a  waste  of  snow.  There 
is  not  a  bare  spot  of  earth  to  be  found, 
and  the  icy  surface  reflects  the  sun 
with  dazzling  brilliance.  You  may 
run  out  in  the  snow  for  a  little  while ; 
but  you  are  soon  glad  to  come  back, 
glowing  with  colour,  tc  the  heated 
room. 


232  LETTERS    TO    A 

Bu :  has  winter  no  delights  ?  Yes, 
many  of  them.  I  never  knew  a 
child  who  did  not  take  pleasure  in  a 
gentle  fall  of  snow,  in  sliding  upon 
the  smooth  ice,  in  hearing  the  merry 
sleigh-bells,  in  seeing  the  boys  skating 
on  the  pond,  or  driving  their  sledges 
down  the  hill.  But,  besides  these 
out-of-door  amusements,  winter  has 
its  pleasures  within.  What  is  more 
pleasing  than  for  an  affectionate  fami- 
ly to  be  gathered  around  a  blazing, 
crackling  fire  !  Now  the  delight  of 
home  is  felt.  Now  the  father  raises 
his  spectacles,  calls  the  little  ones 
around  him,  takes  the  infants  on  his 
knee,  and  keeps  them  all  awake  with 
stories  of  his  childhood.  He  tells 
them  of  the  war,  when  he  used  to 
tremble  at  the  sound  of  British  can- 
non ;  of  the  Indians,  who  used  to 
hunt  among  his  native  mountains ; 
of  the  voyages  which  he  made  to 
foreign  countries.     Now  the  motuer 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  233 

lays  down  her  knitting,  to  pat  some 
good  boy  on  the  head,  to  send  some 
little  sleeper  to  rest,  or  to  teach  a  new 
stitch  to  the  young  marker,  whose 
sampler  is  just  begun.  Now  the 
happy  voices  join  in  music,  or  the 
entertaining  volume  is  read  aloud  by 
the  elder  brother.  The  bell  rings 
and  good  neighbours  enter.  The 
younger  children  retire.  The  elder 
ones  keep  silence  and  listen  to  useful 
and  lively  conversation.  The  salver 
of  fruits  and  cakes  is  brought  in,  and 
the  evening  closes  with  the  worship 
of  God. 

These  are  home-pleasures.  O  how 
sweet  a  word  is  Home.  Children 
who  love  home  and  seek  their  plea- 
sures there  very  seldom  go  astray. 
It  is  Christianity  that  has  made  home 
v\  hat  it  is  ;  and  without  religion  half 
its  charm  is  absent. 

No  matter  how  dark  and  cold  it  is 
withe  ut,  all  is  light  and  warmth  with- 
20* 


234  LETTERS    TO   A 

in.  The  storm  may  rage,  and  sleet 
rattle  against  the  walls,  but  Provi- 
dence shelters  you  in  the  bosom  of 
your  very  best  earthly  friends.  What 
cause  for  thankfulness  is  here !  As 
you  enjoy  each  favour,  think  of  the 
blessed  Saviour,  through  whose  grace 
Khey  are  continued  to  you. 

Before  I  was  as  old  as  you  now 
are,  I  had  begun  to  look  at  books  of 
poetry.  Well  do  I  remember  the  old 
volume  of  Cowper's  Task  and  the 
pictures  of  the  lace-knitters  and  of 
poor  Kate.  Even  then  I  enjoyed, 
as  you  now  may,  what  this  Christian 
poet  says  of  winter  evening  plea- 
sures. And  a  thousand  times  have 
I  felt  these  pleasures  increased  by 
the  recollection  of  his  lines  : 

Now  stir  the  fire,  and  close  the  shutters  fast; 
Let  fall  the  curtains  ;  wheel  the  sofa  round ; 
And  while  the  bubbling  and  loud  hissing  urn 
Throws  up  a  steamy  column,  and  the  cups. 
That  cheer  but  not  inebriate,  wait  on  each, 
So  let  us  welcome  peaceful  evening  in. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY  235 

If  you  learn  to  love  such  evenings, 
and  to  think  the  company  of  pa- 
rents, brothers  and  sisters  the  best 
company  in  the  world,  you  will  have 
every  day  an  amount  of  real  pleasure 
which  is  unknown  to  those  who  go 
to  operas,  play-houses  and  crowded 
parties.  You  will  not,  indeed,  be- 
come a  fashionable  young  lady  ;  but 
you  will  be  wiser  and  happier  than 
any  one  was  ever  made  by  fashion. 
The  study  of  good  books,  and  espe- 
cially of  God's  inspired  word,  will 
lay  a  foundation  for  joys  which  will 
last  ail  your  lifetime,  and  which  will 
not  grow  less  when  wealth  and  youth 
and  beauty  and  friends  have  de- 
parted. 

Winter  pleasures  are  not,  however, 
confined  to  the  evening.  They  be- 
long to  morning,  noon  and  night.  In 
warmer  seasons  we  go  out  and  learn 
more  of  nature  and  things  abroad : 
n   winter  we   convert  with    dear 


236  LETTERS    TO    \ 

friends,  with  books  and  with  our- 
selves. Winter  is  the  time  for  study 
Try  to  make  it  your  entertainment. 
Determine  to  improve  your  mind, 
and  to  be  constantly  learning  some- 
thing that  you  never  knew  before. 
Study  with  alacrity  and  cheerfulness, 
and  you  will  find  it  less  injurious  to 
your  health  than  to  fret  over  your 
books.  You  will  learn  faster  and  be 
more  agreeable  to  all  around  vou. 

Your  brothers  will  teach  you  many 
a  healthful,  innocent  play,  which 
will  give  you  exercise  in  bad  weather, 
without  going  out.  But  you  must 
not  become  so  delicate  as  to  house 
yourself  merely  because  it  is  cold. 
There  is  nothing  better  for  a  young 
lady  than  a  rapid  walk  on  the  frozen 
ground,  when  the  air  is  cold  and 
bracing.  When  she  returns  from  it 
she  feels  lighter  and  brighter  all  the 
rest  of  the  day. 

Make  it  one  of  your  pleasures  to 


VERY     YOUNG    LADY.  237 

remember  the  pool  in  this  cold  sea- 
son. It  is  the  time  of  their  greatest 
want  and  suffering.  Think  of  the 
half-naked  children  who  might  be 
clothed  with  what  you  often  waste. 
Your  fingers  cannot  be  better  em- 
ployed than  in  working  for  them. 
They  will  remember  you  for  it,  per- 
haps even  after  you  have  left  the 
world.  Do  not  forget  the  case  of  that 
good  Christian,  named  Dorcas,  who 
lived  and  died  at  Joppa.  "  She  was 
full  of  good  wrorks  and  alms-deeds 
which  she  did."  And  when  the  apos- 
tle Peter  approached  her  lifeless  body, 
laid  out  in  an  upper  chamber,  it  was 
surrounded  by  widows,  who  "stood 
by,  weeping  and  showing  the  coats 
and  garments  which  Dorcas  made 
while  she  was  with  them."  Be 
ready  to  join  in  every  charitable 
work  of  this  kind  which  may  be 
going  on  in  your  neighbourhood. 
Print  it  or    vour  mind,  to  be  al- 


238 


LETTERS    TO    A 


ways  remembered,  that  one  child 
may  make  home  wretched,  and  that 
one  child  may  do  wonders  towards 
making  home  happy.  Every  thing 
you  do  to  make  your  father's  house 
a  house  of  order  and  peace  and  com- 
fort, is  so  much  done  for  your  pa- 
rents, your  brothers  and  sisters,  and 
vour  friends. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  239 


LETTER   FORTY-FIRST. 

HUMILITY    AND    MEEKNESS. 

My  dear  Mary, — Beware  of  pride. 
All  through  life  you  will  be  the  bet- 
ter for  remembering  this  rule.  Pride 
is  a  deceitful  thing,  and  lives  and 
reigns  in  many  a  heart  which  does 
not  suspect  it.  It  opens  the  way  for 
other  passions,  such  as  anger,  re- 
venge, envy,  jealousy  and  malice.  It 
produces  most  of  the  quarrels,  bat- 
tles and  murders  which  fill  the  earth 
with  blood. 

Beware  of  pride.  It  is  the  think- 
ing of  ourselves  more  highly  than 
we  ought  to  think ;  and  it  generally 
makes  us  wish  others  to  think  more 
highly  of  us  than  we  deserve.  It  is 
altogether  evil ;  and  all  the  ungodly 
world  says  about  a  decent  pride,  and 
a  noble  prid?,   is   against   the   holy 


240  LETTERS    TO    A 

Scriptures.  The  noblest  being  that 
ever  was  born  had  no  pride  :  I  mean 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  ought 
to  strive  to  be  like  him  ;  and  the 
more  we  copy  his  example,  the  hap- 
pier shall  we  be. 

If  you  wish  to  get  through  the 
world  with  peace  of  mind,  be  hum- 
ble. That  is,  think  little  of  your- 
self. Do  your  duty  to  the  utmost 
of  your  power,  and  then  do  not  be 
careful  about  the  opinion  of  your 
fellow-creatures.  Never  do  any 
thing  merely  for  the  purpose  of  being 
admired  and  praised.  The  world 
admires  and  praises  much  that  is 
hateful  to  God.  Too  much  thought 
about  what  people  think  of  them,  is 
a  common  snare  of  young  people.  It 
leads  to  mortification  and  pain  and 
many  tears. 

When  your  faults  are  pointed  out 
to  you,  I  know  it  wTill  give  you  pain. 
But  remember,  this  pain  is  often 
very  useful.     It  is    like    medicine, 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  241 

whicn  may  be  very  nauseous,  and 
yet  do  you  good.  If  you  think  truly 
about  yourself,  you  will  be  humble 
when  you  are  reproved.  You  will 
think  thus  with  yourself:  "Am  I 
guilty  of  this  fault?  Let  me  exa- 
mine. "  And  you  will  see  more 
faults  in  yourself  than  any  one  else 
can  see  in  you,  and  wril  try  to  correct 
them. 

Take  a  low  place  in  the  world,  and 
you  will  always  find  it  the  place  of 
peace.  Emulation  and  envy  will  be 
shut  out,  and  you  will  cheerfully 
say,  "  I  have  more  than  I  deserve, 
and  I  am  better  thought  of  than  I 
deserve."  Then  you  will  be  quite 
contented,  even  though  others  are 
put  above  you ;  and  will  have  no 
hard  thoughts  if  you  are  unnoticed. 

Humility  is  a  beautiful  ornament ; 
therefore  the  Bible  says,  "Be  ye 
clothed  with  humility  V  It  is  lovely 
even  in  the  eyes  of  men,  but  still 
more  so  ii\  the  eyes  of  God.  Your 
21 


242  LETTERS    TO    A 

clothes,  your  ornaments,  your  money, 
will  tempt  you  to  think  highly  of 
yourself.  As  surely  as  you  do,  you 
will  fall  into  sin  and  trouble.  The 
way  to  keep  the  heart  humble  is,  to 
think  much  of  God's  holy  law,  and 
the  perfection  which  it  requires,  and 
much  of  your  own  imperfection. 
And  if  you  also  keep  your  thoughts 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  consi- 
der how  rich  he  was,  and  how  poor 
he  became,  it  will  do  a  great  deal  to 
cure  your  pride. 

Meekness  and  humility  are  like 
two  sisters.  They  almost  always 
are  in  company.  If  a  person  is  given 
to  anger,  you  wrill  generally  find  him 
proud.  But  one  who  is  meek  is 
tlways  humble.  The  child  that  flies 
into  a  passion  and  uses  harsh  words, 
or  perhaps  blows,  and  falls  out  with 
every  companion,  is  a  very  disagree- 
able creature.  What  is  it  that  such 
a  child  needs  ?  I  can  tell  you  in  a 
single  word :  Meekness. 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  243 

If  you  are  meek,  I  will  tell  you 
now  you  may  know  it.  You  will 
not  be  soon  angry.  You  will  never 
use  unkind  language  to  a  relation,  an 
acquaintance,  or  a  servant.  You  will 
never  do  evil  to  others,  because  they 
have  done  evil  to  you.  Meekness 
is  the  very  opposite  of  all  this,  and 
of  every  thing  like  spite  and  ill  will 
and  resentment. 

It  is  pleasing  to  Christ,  when 
young  persons  forgive  those  who  in- 
jure them.  Christ  did  so  himself. 
Never  was  any  one  so  injured  as  he ; 
but  he  was  perfect  in  meekness. 
When  he  was  reviled,  he  reviled  not 
again.  He  was  oppressed  and  he 
was  afflicted  ;  yet  he  opened  not  his 
mouth  :  he  was  brought  as  a  lamb  to 
the  slaughter ;  and  as  a  sheep  before 
her  shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened 
not  his  mouth.  Even  when  his 
bloodthirsty  enemies  were  putting 
him  to  death,  he  prayed  for  them, 
saying,   "  Father,  forgive   them,  for 


244  LETTERS    TO    A 

they  know  not  what  they  do." 
Whenever  you  feel  anger  or  resent- 
ment rising  in  your  bosom,  think  of 
this,  and  you  will  be  ashamed  of  the 
feeling. 

You  will  often  be  treated  in  a  way 
that  you  dislike,  and  sometimes  you 
will  be  affronted  or  injured.  But  do 
not  hate  those  who  offend  you  thus. 
No  matter  how  often  it  happens ;  be 
meek  and  forgiving.  The  apostle 
Peter  once  came  to  our  Saviour  and 
asked,  "  Lord,  how  often  shall  my 
brother  sin  against  me,  and  I  forgive 
him?  till  seven  times ?"  He  no 
doubt  thought  this  would  be  a  great 
stretch  of  meekness.  But  what  was 
Christ's  answer?  "I  say  not  unto 
thee,  until  seven  times,  but  until 
seventy  times  seven." 

Remember  that  you  are  beginning 
life,  and  that  you  ought  to  begin  as 
you  mean  to  continue.  If  3^ou  be- 
gin wrong,  as  I  often  tell  you,  it  will 
be  hard  to  get  right      If  you  follow 


VERY    YOUNG   LaDY.  245 

the  ways  of  the  world,  and  take 
their  rules,  you  will  be  sure  to  go 
wrong.  The  people  of  this  world 
are  opposed  to  Christ  and  to  his  rules 
They  will  tell  you  that  when  any 
one  offends  you,  it  is  right  to  show 
some  spirit,  to  be  angry,  to  return 
evil  for  evil.  But  Christ  will  tell 
you :  "  Love  your  enemies,  bless 
them  that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them 
that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them 
which  despitefully  use  you  and  per- 
secute you  :  that  ye  may  be  the  chil- 
dren of  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven :  for  he  maketh  his  sun  tc 
rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and 
sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the 
unjust.  For  if  ye  love  them  which 
love  you,  wdiat  reward  have  ye  ?  Do 
not  even  the  publicans  the  same?" 

Other  young  ladies  may  have  gold 
and  gems,  and  even  diamonds,  and 
they  will  be  proud  of  these;  they 
will  be  praised  and  envied  by  a  blind 
world.  But  if  you  have  humility 
21 


246  LETTERS    TO    A 

and  meekness,  you  will  have  jewels 
which  are  approved  by  your  Father 
in  heaven.  And  I  cannot  help  quot- 
ing again  what  the  apostle  Peter  says 
of  Christian  women  and  their  dres&  : 
"  Whose  adorning,  let  it  not  be  that 
outward  adorning  of  plaiting  the 
hair  and  of  wearing  of  gold,  or  of 
putting  on  of  apparel ;  but  let  it  be 
the  hidden  man  of  the  heart,  in  that 
which  is  not  corruptible,  even  the 
ornament  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit, 
which  is  in  the  sight  of  God  of  great 
■price." 

You  are  ready  to  say  that  I  have 
given  you  a  sermon.  So  I  have ; 
but  it  is  the  last,  and  I  bid  you  good 
night,  saying  again,  Be  humble;  be 
meek 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  247 


LETTER  FORTY-SECOND. 

CONCLUSION. 

My  dear  MAry, — I  have  taken 
the  pen  to  close  our  correspond- 
ence. It  has  been  pleasant  work  to 
me.  I  hope  it  has  not  been  disagree- 
able to  you.  But  other  duties  call 
for  my  attention,  and  I  must  now 
leave  you  to  the  care  of  your  parents 
and  instructors.  If  you  attend  to 
what  I  have  written,  you  will  be 
more  ready  than  ever  to  learn  of 
those  whom  Providence  has  made 
your  teachers. 

When  all  these  forty-two  letters 
are  put  together,  perhaps  you  will 
take  the  trouble  to  read  them  over 
again.  You  will  find  that  I  have 
endeavoured  to  instruct  you  about 
a  great  variety  of  subjects.  1  have 
written    to    vou    about   vour    plavs 


248  LETTERS    TO    A 

and  amusements,  your  friends  and 
visits,  your  "books  and  work,  your 
tempers  and  habits,  your  joys  and 
surrows ;  about  this  world  and  the 
next.  Sometimes  my  letters  have 
been  gay,  and  sometimes  serious ; 
but  they  have  all  been  written  with 
a  sincere  desire  to  do  you  good. 

Time  flies  very  fast,  and  if  your 
life  is  spared  you  will  soon  be  a 
woman.  You  will  wonder  how  soon 
you  have  passed  through  childhood 
and  youth.  When  I  look  back,  it 
seems  only  the  other  day  that  I  was 
about  your  age  ;  and  yet  it  was  almost 
thirty  years  ago.  You  should,  there- 
fore, lose  no  time  in  being  all  that  you 
ought  to  be.  If  you  learn  what  is  use- 
less, waste  your  youth,  and  form  evL 
habits,  you  cannot  go  back  and  correct 
your  error.  If  you  sow  wheat,  you 
will  reap  wheat :  if  you  sow  tares,  you 
will  reap  tares.  If  you  are  a  care- 
less, thoughtless  girl,  you  will  pro- 
bably be  as  careless  and  thoughtless 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  249 

a  woman.  And  I  am  sure,  if  yon 
allow  yourself  to  he  an  ignorant  girl, 
you  will  be  an  ignorant  woman. 
Now  is  the  time ;  every  word  you 
say,  and  every  thing  you  do,  wil. 
help  to  make  you  better  or  worse  for 
life. 

If  I  should  live  twenty  years 
longer,  which  is  not  likely,  and  in 
travelling  through  the  country  should 
come  to  your  house,  I  have  no  doubt 
you  would  treat  your  old  friend 
kindly.  You  would  take  his  hat  and 
staff,  and  find  him  an  easy  seat  near 
the  fire,  and  give  his  aged  frame 
every  refreshment.  You  would  re- 
spect his  gray  hairs  and  wrinkles,  and 
would  be  sorry  to  grieve,  or  offend 
him.  Suppose  I  should  find  you 
very  ignorant,  very  boisterous,  and 
very  worldly  ;  fond  of  noise  and  idle 
company  and  finery  and  admiration. 
Suppose  I  should  find  that  you  had 
ceased  to  pray  ;  that  you  had  neglect- 
ed  the   Scriptures;    and    that  you 


£50  LETTERS    TO    A 

were  altogether  careless  about  the 
things  of  God.  This  would  be 
dreadful.  Yet  such  is  the  history  of 
many  a  young  lady.  I  should  have 
to  say,  with  a  trembling  voice, 

11  Twenty  years  ago  you  were  my 
little  Mary.  You  then  had  dear 
parents  who  are  now  in  heaven. 
They  longed  and  prayed  for  your 
salvation.  But  you  neglected  their 
counsels  and  their  prayers.  You 
were  instructed  and  warned  by  them 
and  by  me ;  but  you  have  grown 
worse  instead  of  better,  and  my  fear 
is  that  vou  will  die  as  you  have 
lived." 

It  would  be  painful  to  say  and 
hear  such  a  speech.  My  prayer  to 
God  is  that  your  case  may  be  a  very 
different  one;  that  you  may  give 
vourself  away  to  Christ  now,  with- 
out delay ;  and  that  whether  you 
live  or  die,  you  may  follow  the  foot- 
*eps  of  God's  people. 

Therefore,  whatsoever  things  are 


VERY    YOUNG    LADY.  251 

true,  whatsoever  things  are  honest, 
whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatso- 
ever things  are  pure,  whatsoevei 
things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things 
are  of  good  report ;  if  there  be  any 
virtue,  and  if  there  be  any  praise, 
think  on  these  things !" 

And  now,  my  dear  Mary,  I  trust 
vou  will  believe  me  to  be,  your  affec- 
tionate friend  and  wTell-wisher, 


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